December 2018 Cellar Reviews

I picked up a lone bottle of Gouden Carolus Noel on sale at a liquor store in St Louis a couple of years back when I lived there. I kind of stashed it in the back of my 'cellar' (aka one of my otherwise-empty cabinets) and had just never really felt the time was right to bust into it until now. The label says, "it improves with age, and will charm [me] with its warm coppery colour and its rich bouquet." The date stamps says 20/08/11, so just over 7 years old now. I'd never seen it before, let alone tasted it fresh, so there's always that caveat.



The pour is kind of an ugly brown with a ton of sediment. Imagine french press coffee that looks weaker than it is.
Nose was immediately rich and a bit boozy... the first thing that jumped to mind was a dark cognac... thinking more specifically the darkness had strong overtures of molasses and something not quite, but bordering on chocolate-ness. Deep rich and smoothe are some adjectives.
Flavour starts out with a dry impression, but ends up lingering with a blunted sweet idea. In between are more of those rich cognac/etc type grape notes, but borne out of raisins and tobacco and plums and the like rather than the white grapes of actual cognac. Some molasses still, but less of a lever than the nose, and light spice. Mostly everything has just kind of melded together at this point and totally invaded one another to create a single slurry of flavour-descendents rather than the stratification of the same antecedents.
Alcohol is not overly prevalent, but I can tell that it was once a big brew.
Digging it, but wish I'd popped into it earlier.

I only paid like a buck and a half for it, if memory serves, so and feel like that's a steal. It really reminds me of a nice mellow dark cognac. Of course I'd always rather be able to compare to the experience of a fresh one just to see the delta, but I'm glad to have had this one and gotten to try it now. I imagine it would probably be better with a little less time on it, but again, I still really enjoyed it and don't regret hanging onto it this long, and definitely don't regret having picked it up.

Also, I really like the idea of a collective cellar dive. I think Bigfoot is the ideal candidate for that endeavour. Plus it makes up a plurality of my 'cellar,' with a vertical going back to roughly 2008 or so (and it's one of my absolute desert island beers anyway, so I'm obviously into it).

 

2017 Firestone walker parabola. This is kinda a reverse cellar for me because the first time I had this beer was the '15 version drank last year so this will be my freshest impression.

Pours a beautiful dark brown, mahogany. Very thin head and quite light colored for the style. 4.5/5
Smell is roasty and chocolatey. surprisingly subtle yet again, i expect much more aroma from such a big beer. There is depth to it, it just seems muted 3.75/5
Taste leads with a surprisingly hoppy, vegetal bitterness followed by dark chocolate and char bitter notes, with big heavy molasses and dark plum/currant notes rising before a very sharp cocoa bitterness brings the flavor to a close. Some booziness present in the aftertaste, my preferred place for that taste in beers. Very pleasant sipper. 4.5/5
Mouthfeel is spot on. This is a big beer, it dominates your palette, it doesn't hold back but it also leaves room. You could certainly enjoy some rich bbq or some of the more richly savory european fair along with this behemoth. 4.75/5
Overall this is a great stout, I would imagine this one could stand the test of time. I did like this a bit more than my 2 year old bottle last year but not enough to assume it was the extra yr (vs the million other factors that influence our taste moment to moment) 4.5/5

 

I should add to the above assessment that a sort of whiskey soaked raisin quality builds in this beer as it rises beyond cellar temp. I find it very pleasant

 

Founders Curmudgeon Ale bottled 12/30/16

12oz bottle into Tulip
Bottled on 12/30/16 2 years old
Pours a deep red almost brown with thin tan head
Aroma is caramel, oak, and yeast
Taste follows the nose with a big malty start intense but not overly sweet caramel, golden raisin, yeast undertones, followed by oaky dryness and subtle bitter finish
The feel is medium-to-full bodied, syrupy feel, but has a medicinal dryness as well
Overall, I did not have this beer fresh (only bought it 'aged' recently) but this a super balanced complex easy drinking sipper, I'm really glad to have found this.

 

Rude Elf vertical!

Notes:
2018: The Rude Elf we all know and love. Spicy and sweet, a great Christmas beer.
2017: Spice is gone, sweetness is more prominent, seems thinner. These are probably simply results of the lack of spice character.
2016: Picked up a sourness, to be nice we can say a white wine characteristic.
2015: No sourness present. In retrospect, tastes like a 2014 mixed with a bit of 2017.
2014: The least Rude-Elf-ish, in fact there's pretty much no Elf left. Caramel-ish malts more forward, sweetness subdued. Almost starts to pick up some quad characteristics.

Verdicts: People were all over the place in what they preferred. A couple of people liked the 2016. The 2014 was notable for a lot of people liking that one.

There's nothing like a fresh Elf, but some of the others were good, too.

 

2014 Bruery Smoking Wood Imperial Porter with Bourbon Barrels (13%)

Pours black and thin, tan head that aggressively crackles from the depths, only to disappear without a trace less than a minute later. Smells of bourbon, raisins, milk chocolate, faint smoke, treacle. Tastes of bitter chocolate, smoke, light coffee. Alcohol is muted, mouthfeel is thinner per the porter style, carbonation is thin and prickly. Very good beer, all of the smoke and alcohol is well balanced and quite sippable.