Where to start with Clown Shoes

Same here. The name and labels looked a little gimmicky to me. I'm glad to hear that it's worth a look though!

 

Vampire Slayer. I cannot say this often enough.

 

They even collect dust at their "home" liquor store at Berman's in Lexington, MA.

 

Wow. This thread really illustrates the subjectivity of taste.

I've been a fan of Clown Shoes since my first taste of Eagle Claw Fist over a year and a half ago. The stouts are my favorites by far but I tried almost everything they offer and haven't had a single one that I'd call bad. The collaborations have been awesome too. Pimp (collab with Brash) is still drinkimg great & I'd love them to make more Third Party Canidate because that was delicious.

So give them a try. You might find, like I did, that these guys really appeal to your personal tastes.

Oh, and ISO: Clown Shoes snifter...

 

Heck yeah. After enjoying Pimp so much, I've tried everything that GA gets from Brash. It's freakin good. The Bullocks is a mighty palate wrecking DIPA, Texas Exile is a tasty imperial coffee porter and Item Nine is some strange, near unclassifiable hoppy imperial wheat goodness. I eagerly await fresh shipments of The Bullocks, Item Nine and anything else they care to distribute.

 

I'd start with new names, then I'd move on to new labels

 

I have only had the Clementine and Ghengis Pecan. Both were rubbish. I am sure other brews that folks are mentioning are good, but my experiences with the above mentioned beers coupled with their price tag leads me to pass by them up repeatedly.

 

Detailed reviews of each please.

 

I'm not good at reviewing beer.

 

So is chocolate sombrero!

 

luchador en fuego is the bomb ! i prefer it over hunahpu any day of the week. plus, its 100% BBA

 

I think its a tragedy that Luchador en Fuego is a one-time only deal, and never coming back. It's really freaking good, a masterpiece perhaps. I can't think of too many bourbon barreled chocolate stouts out there. Hints of peppers too, and really well balanced with 11%abv. What will these bottles age to in a year or two I wonder

 

I really want to try that other Unidragon too. I've never seen it.

 

I've heard the Clementine is awful, no idea on the 1.5
I didn't think Ghengis Pecan was bad at all. Just a hint of pecan, not sweet. They have much better offerings than those that you've had.

 

Fresh Brown Angel, Blaecorn Unidragon & Hoppy Feet. Really looking forward to trying Vampire Slayer and Galactica DIPA.

 

They definitely have a bit of the sleaze-factor working, don't they?

 

That's funny. I'm in MA and have seen these growing for years. Just picked up my first tonight (clementine), something I could split with the old lady but ill definetly go back for others.

 

I've only had Genghis Pecan. The label was pure genius. The beer was ok, nothing to write home about.

 

CS was one of my introductions to craft beer... seeing their Pecan Pie Porter (pre-renaming to Genghis Pecan) in late 2010, I was intrigued by the idea and gave it a shot... it's a rough-around-the-edges beer even now but that is part of what makes CS great. Gregg is willing to try a lot of styles with his beer, and he has shown that he can go outside the box in many ways and create interesting final products, though some are rougher "sketches" than others.

I agree with most BAs that Clown Shoes' stouts are their highest quality offerings, though they are all imperials so far. Vampire Slayer is one of the best East Coast imperial stouts available; a very high quality dry, semi-hoppy/bitter stout that drinks very easy for its strength. Blaecorn is similar, but more in line with the Russian Imperial side of things with notes of dark fruit and ethanol esters floating around. Luchador en Fuego is an awesome 100% bourbon-barrel aged stout with various chiles and a lot of chocolate used... I found it to be very tasty with a lot of barrel juice qualities... maybe a little untamed at some points but certainly worthy of a drink.

Third Party Candidate and Pimp are both collaborative strong ales and are good overall... don't pass them up just due to the whole "half-and-half" style of the collabs. They're pretty different from the base beers in both cases. The former takes the best qualities of a bigger malty red and combines those ideas with a smooth, resinous hop quality that drinks very nicely... Pimp is a strong brown-ish ale with a definite "booze-soaked dark fruit" aspect without getting "Belgian" in any way, if you know what I mean. Some brandy-like flavors and not-so-hidden alcohol.

Hoppy Feet and its stronger sister beer (1.5, FYI) are both really good... the 1.5 is one of the biggest Cascadian blacks to exist which is a solid distinction... it helps that it's quite a nice beer though for sure... I actually found Clementine 1.5 to be an awesome "double wit", as well. I love this brewery and follow them fairly closely, if you couldn't tell I started following Brash due to the aforementioned Pimp collab and haven't been let down either. Great stuff. Cheers.