Latest WOW! Beer (2020)

For me is BRECKENRIDGE BREWERY. A few are Breckenridge Hop Peak IPA and Breckenridge Oktoberfest. This brewery has impressed me lately with a good IPA and a good Oktoberfest. I'm impressed after trying those two. Not sure if anyone else can attest...?

 

Yeah, that prescription shampoo works wonders.

 

All I can think of is Chris Elliot saying "Sparkles: Professional Male Model". Couldn't find an audio clip.

 

Barrel Aged Kamoho from Riverlands Brewing. Super rich coconut and chocolate, without being too sweet or covering up the barrel. It's the first BA beer I've tried from Riverlands, and it's maybe the best beer I have tried this year.

 

Bell's 35th Anniversary Expedition Stout Reserve.



This one hits all the notes one would expect from a big, Russian Imperial Stout: It's full of roasted malts, char and tobacco, giving it that rustic, bitter flavor. But it's also full of sweet chocolate, and a ton of vanilla.

It's exceptionally well balanced. It's heavy and chewy so it can be a challenge to get through one bottle but it's like a decadent dessert to top off the evening.

I'm going to sit on a bottle (not Literally, gross) and see how it ages.

 

How crazy is it that I have had exactly three beers this year and one of them was a WOW!!!! beer. Rapture, from Alchemist.

 

Yep, such an amazing beer. I'm telling you Citra and Galaxy hops were made for each other.

 

Another vote for Bell’s 35th Anniversary Expedition. Sublime.

 

Bell’s 35th Anniversary Expedition Stout again! Was hesitant to try because I only have 8 bottles and I like to do a little aging. So glad I popped one. So smooth, flavorful and all around awesome. Wish I could turn this into a curtain. What? I bought some light blocking curtains so I can sleep in later. Too much light still comes through. If this was a curtain, ain’t no light getting through! Well done, Bell’s!

 

Approaching a new year, but there is still something to say for 2020 encounters - Latest WOW comes with cellar rest, drying platforms, and room increments – Bottle 41/46:

Peeled carrot pour, from color derived behind skin tones, with highlights in yellow and amber. The head is sturdy in aftermath lace, but quick on straight induction, as it starts a few centimeters high in white presentation before a swift recoil

A perceivable/abstract gueuze minerality at hand - A tart, grainy wet lining that stretches over ripe tropical fruit in papaya, mango, guava, and the softening of persimmon pudding. Furthering notes to categorical advancement comes to crisp peach cobbler, before blueberry buckle, blood orange, and fruttare apple sit beneath wheat bready funk. The progression to sense becomes tranquil on rustic acidity, but steady on nuanced funk in gnawed bison leather, corroded forage, and boundless sheet webs

The palate takes to honeyed perspicacity, where acidic funk is tempered around pliable fruit, and where the abstracts encapsulate moldy connotations in cobblestone canvas, upholstery, and ceiling tiles. Moreover on rank and mildew, comes an unhinged encryption in rainforest over basement fungus besides mushroom rawhide, before a return to prickly pear sourdough and fresh peach vinaigrette

A medium light, bright body, with practical carbonation, and a finish that appeases a dry orderliness – In consequence, a vehicle for controlled impulsivity thru spent years, where acidity is refereed across wide-ranging (spontaneous) complexity




A

 

Khoffner Blood Orange Cream Ale.

 

Sticky from New Trail.

 

Since Groundhog Day (last time I posted in this thread);

• Drekker Rhuberry Pie Puff Tart (4.63)
• Prairie Pirate Paradise (4.62)
• Brewing Projekt Resist - Blood Orange (4.60)
• Founders KBS (Kentucky Breakfast Stout) - Maple Mackinac Fudge (4.60)
• White Elm Lick the Spoon (4.60)
• Boulevard Rye On Rye Maple (4.59)
• Surly Darkness Rye BA - Double Vanilla (4.59)
• Hubbard's Cave Päncake Walk (4.56)
• Surly Darkness Rum BA - Vietnamese Coffee (4.55)
• Surly 2020 Darkness - Bourbon Barrel-Aged (4.54)
• Lupulin Strictly Illegal (4.54)
• Drekker Slang Du Jour - Blueberry Peach Cobbler (4.54)
• Drekker Braaaaaaaains - Blackberry and Black Currant (4.52)
• Central Waters Brewer's Reserve Bourbon Pecan Kringle Stout (4.52)
• Drekker Bumbleberry Pie Slang Du Jour (4.52)
• Covert Artisan Ales Pillow Fort: No Bake (4.52)
• Drekker Chonk Sundae Sour (Blueberry Pomegranate & Chocolate) (4.52)
• Drekker Flarndip (4.50)
• Prairie Corner Piece (4.50)
• Drekker Braaaaaaaains - Blackberry, Passionfruit and Pineapple (4.50)
• Prairie Bourbon Barrel Aged Weekend (4.50)

These are just new ones that I've rated 4.5 or higher. It's been a great beer-year, and it's obvious that I favor BA and/or sweet pastry stout/sour/NEIPAs!

 

My Wow! beer for 2020 is Founders KBS Maple Mackinac Fudge. Outstanding!

 

My biggest “wow” was from Great Notion’s Double Stack. I visited Seattle recently and has to make the trip to their taproom in Georgetown. When I got there, it was close to freezing and it was pouring rain. Even though I had a mask on and it was cold and pouring, once the beer was placed in front of me, I could smell it clear as day. Easily one of the most fragrant beers I’ve ever had. Blew my mind!

 

It must have been the Orval. I’m kind of a slow learner...