Devil's Backbone 2016 Adventure Pack Collaboration Sampler

I do not disagree with your categorization of Risen. I acknowledge I was being picky but only in an effort to personally rank one beer in front of another (recognizing the differing styles) as I drink my way through this colab pack.

I've since had the Wicked Weed Seven Summits Imp Stout. I have not been disappointed.

 

Interesting, I actually thought that was the worst beer in the pack. I found it to be thin and a little too yeasty. It seemed to lack the flavor I expect at that ABV.

I agree with you on the session IPL though. Great beer.

 

Didn't say the Imp Stout was the best just that I was not disappointed with the pack so far.

Drinking the Sunking Another State of Kind double dank cream ale right now. Have not had the Thunder Road strong Australian, but this cream ale may be my least favorite of the pack. I would put it at #4 without having had the fifth (not counting the Vienna lager).

 

I picked up a 12 pack after tasting them. I thought the IPL was decent and for a low alcohol beer very good. My favorite was the risen as I love coffee and it reeked of coffee. The 7 summit was interesting. To me I got the salt and am not sure it helped. Made the beer more drinkable and the salt seemed to cleanse the palate. Very interesting and the beer was good. I think that without the salt it would have been better. The other two were better than average IPA's so all in all a bargain as a mixed 12.

 

There was a decent article in the Washington Post Food section last Wednesday. I would post a link to the digital article, but I cannot find it anywhere!

 

They have it at bay ridge liquor store in Annapolis.
Just starting my adventure today

 

All these beers were rock-solid and had amazing mouthfeel. This was a great value for $17. 3/6 (6 total) beers were 8% or more.

 

Yup, that's where I got mine from. Had quite a few of them

 

Yes, that's the one!

 

I was down in VA and just picked up one of the 12 packs yesterday. Only bummer was that DB included Vienna Lager instead of something special from themselves. I look forwards to seeing how they all turned out.

 

I ranked them like this:

Vienna Lager 4.31/5 (rDev +14.3%)
Another State of Kind 4.29/5 (rDev +9.4%)
Double Pacific Ale 4.25/5 (rDev +8.1%)
Seven Summits 4.1/5 (rDev +0.2%)
Risen 3.92/5 (rDev -2.2%)
Session IPL 3.8/5 (rDev -4.5%)

If I was going to pick three words to describe this sampler, they would be: big, varied, and solid.

Big: The average ABV is 7.2%; if you leave out the lone "session" beer, it goes up to 7.9%. Not your father's sampler. (I am reclaiming that phrase in the name of the people, charlatans be damned.)

Varied: The six beers represent widely varied styles. And slice it any way you want, they're not clustered anywhere on the map: 3 big, 1 medium, 2 small; 2 dark, 4 light; 2 lagers, 4 ales; 3 hoppy, 3 not so much. Nice.

Solid: Simply put, they're all really good beers; there's not one that I'd have had them leave out. My BA ratings ranged from 3.80 to 4.31 and averaged 4.11... I think that's a solid performance, especially considering how varied the styles are.

Kudos to Devils Backbone!

 

DI've had the Vienna Lager quite a few times while visiting the brew pub and production brewery on business trips to-and-from Lynchburg, VA. I picked up the Collaboration Adventure pack yesterday and just had a Vienna Lager (excellent) followed by Another State of Kind, which I reviewed. The later had a unique flavor that I quite enjoyed. Looking forward to trying the other four beers. Great brewery and an impressive collaboration. I've been to Surly, NoDa and Wicked Weed and so expect to continue to enjoy this adventure.

 

Didn't have any issues with getting what I was supposed to get in the sampler. Very impressed, some of the best stuff yet from DB, even though they were collbs with other breweries. The stout was phenomenal !!!!!!