April 2014 Cellar Reviews

With about two years of age on this, this is one of my favorite beers

 

2011 Founders Imperial Stout

pours oily and black, almost no head. aroma is a bit smokey, and the taste has some black liquorice flavor above the roasted malt, a touch bitter and a bit acidic. thick sticky body, very low carbonation.

not as good as fresh, so drink 'em if ya got 'em.

 

Lost Abbey Mo' Betta Bretta (2012)- I cellared this for 2 years hoping the brett would do something fun/good with the beer. Nope. This was pretty gross and I ended up drain pouring the bottle. Stale grains, not much complexity and the brett had a completely off-putting flavor to it.

Victory White Monkey (2013) - When fresh, I actually really enjoyed this beer. Now, for some reason there is an odd sweetness that took over the drink. There wasn't the drying, white wine characteristics I remember this beer having fresh. Flavors got muddled, the malt started creeping to the front of the profile. No where near as bright and crisp as it used to be. Just not good.

 

@MtnSoup - YMMV, but I just thought it was flat out bad. Let me know.

 

That's funny because the '10 Matt never worked for me, but I LOVE the '13 Matt.

 

Do these develop any complexity over time? I had a fresh 2013 Apricot last year, and it just tasted like apricots and sour. It was good, but not nearly as good as some of the better sours out there.

 

That's Cascade for you.

 

I might disagree with the characterization of Cascade stuff as not among the better sours out there, but their beers do tend to be fairly straightforward, and I've tended to enjoy them better fresh.

Now, on to some more reviews!

2014 Bruery Rue D'Floyd
Cracked this the day after getting it in the mail (enough time for it to cool down in the fridge again), and man it was AMAZING. A perfect blend of chocolate, coffee, vanilla, and porter characteristics at a more-approachable-than-Black-Tuesday 14.4% ABV. I only ordered one bottle of this and Floyd D'Rue initially for sampling, but I'll definitely be picking up a couple more bottles of this. Worth the fridge shelf space, even if I end up holding onto them for a while.

2014 Bruery Floyd D'Rue
Opened this one up soon after the Rue D'Floyd, and it was sadly not nearly as enjoyable a beer. It has some fun components, but the booziness and rum spice are way too forward right now. It's kind of like having a sip of light rum, followed by a typical big-stout finish. I echo the comments of others in the Bruery threads that it's really a bummer we can't put this one down for extended aging, as I imagine some time would really help the booze side of this beer mellow out into something more fun.

2014 Three Floyds Alpha King
We weren't sure how old this bottle was (a friend brought it over), but I remember liking this more the last time I had. A fairly bitter hoppy pale, it was pretty straightforward and not terribly interesting. Not bad, not great.

2014 Pipeworks Ninja vs. Unicorn
This beer wasn't bad, though it felt like it didn't quite know what it wanted to be, IPA-wise. I had a Citra Ninja about a year ago and really enjoyed it, but this beer had a more muddled hop profile. Better than the Alpha King, but still a merely good DIPA, IMO.

2014 Night Shift Rose
Having had some other Night Shift beers previously we were looking forward to this one, but it was by far the worst beer of the night, one we ended up drain pouring about half of. Straight up paint thinner, basically, with very little in the way of redeeming flavors. One quarter the pepperiness and this beer might be something, but as it is it's way over the top with the flavors it showcases. Disappointing.

2014 Bruery MischMishMish
Since my friend who's splitting Hoarders with me was over, we cracked the lone bottle of MischMishMish that the Bruery would let us purchase, and boy do I wish we could purchase more. It really is what you'd expect: Mischief (an already great beer) with a load of apricot flavor mixed in, and it works very well. A really enjoyable brew, and one that I'd keep the fridge stocked with regularly were it available year round. If you get a chance to try this, do so.

 

I did the exact same thing with the exact same results. There seems to me no hope for this beer.

 

Had a 2011 Dark Lord last night and it was fantastic. Still sweet, but the flavors have come together very nicely. Drink now or continue to age.

 

Probably the last bottle I open in April, had this last night.

2013 Stone Brewing Old Guardian Oak Smoked Barley Wine
Not bad! I've always liked this barley wine as the smokiness adds some nice character to the typical sweetness of the style. Seems to have held up fine with age too.

 

These are all 2014 beers. I'm confused why they're in the cellar review thread. You should just post your review under each respective beer profile.

 

Right, and that's what the reviews are for on this site. This is a cellar review thread. I'm not knocking the fact that he's reviewing beers - I think that's great! I just think posting a whole list of 2014 beer reviews in this thread is getting away from the point of it.

 

Stuff that's from this year is usually still coming out of my cellar, just more quickly

 

Still a day away!

Oscar Blues Ten Fidy (dated 11-29-12, so about 1.5 years old)

jet black, dark tan head that fades. aroma is a bit smokey, less sweet than when fresher. taste is a bit more earthy and subdued. smoke and cocao flavors are more subtle. thick body, low carbonation. different than fresh, just not quite sure if its better.