Mott the Lesser (b.11 - Curbside)

I agree with Matt on DH PSP. The base has a nice bite to it that makes it something you can drink a lot of (it can easily be a fridge beer). The dry hopping really softens it up and takes away some of the crispness that I thoroughly enjoy in the original. At the same time, it's not as aromatic or floral as an "Italian Pils" like Luppolo.

 

You're a real asshole if you lie about getting a test before traveling (not saying you specifically, the royal "you").

And now you're pissing on my lunch time sandwich. Damnit.

 

Speaking of Pilsners, I'm drinking a Prescott from Honest Weight. It is absolutely fantastic German-style pils. I don't how often or where their beers land as for as retail sales are concerned, because I never see their stuff where I live, not far from the RI border. If anyone sees it, and you want an excellent beer, buy it. I feel that way about all of the Honest Weight beers. Highly recommended. Unfortunately, the brewery's location, Orange, doesn't have much going on. My apologies to the good people of Orange.

 

Where did you get it?

 

Yeah I will probably head up when I'm on vacation in July, I've got a week of nothing to do now that I don't plan to actually go anywhere. Both my wife and daughter have been tested and came back negative, my wife due to contact tracing and my daughter because she wasn't feeling well a week or two later.

 

Wife and made took Sunday Drive, literally. Got it at the brewery.

 

I figured. I don't think their distribution reaches very far if at all. They are on tap at Armsby Abbey often. Well, they used to be.

 

I’m glad you were able to decode my poorly written sentence. I gotta proofread my posts before commenting. But yeah, I should have clarified in my earlier post.

 

Yankee Spirits has Branch Bridge.

 

Sturbridge? Love to grab some, but just a bit far for me. Could do Yankee Attleboro.

 

Sturbridge but I think if you do online ordering, the stores send the inventory to each other. I might be totally wrong about that though but it would explain why it takes a couple of days to fill the order. They do have two of their bottles listed online right now too. Roman Mars and A Pattern Language.

 

Picked up my 2 MtL last week and had the first bottle today. This is my first taste of MtL and I had never had Kate the Great. I'm still processing the whole thing, whenever I have a beer with so many expectations I find the process of evaluating it very difficult. I look forward to the second bottle where I feel I'll be better prepared to really take it all in without as much bias. What I find most interesting while drinking this is that it tastes like it should have a much higher ABV. At 10.5% its certainly not a low ABV beer but its also not as high as some other BA beers are and for the amount of the barrel that seeps through I'd expect to be much more drunk after finishing it than I am. How do people feel this compares to other BA RIS stouts out there?

 

I’ve always felt it’s a good mix of old and new. Not as chewy or “thicc” as the newbies, but I feel it leans more complex with the blend of different spirit barrels, especially the past few years. I wasn’t able to reserve any of the latest batch though.

 

Tell us what you think of it after the next bottle. I got my mine last week but haven't opened one yet. I've had two or three of the other batches and I enjoyed them very much. As far as not feeling drunk, consider that a win.

I've had plenty of BA stouts over the years, but oddly, I often feel let down. I've also slowed down on them over the past few years, mainly because of the amount of booze in them, but I think the Mott series matches up quite nicely against other BA stouts. The best imperial stout I've had in the last couple of years wasn't even a BA imperial stout, it was a coffee imperial stout from a growler at Hill Farmstead (I can't remember the name of it). But surprisingly, I enjoyed it more than the bottle of Damon that I had around the same time.

As far as quality, consistency, value, and availability, the Jack's Abbey Framinghammer series of Baltic porters is great. The double-barrel Framinghammer I had some years ago was memorable. It's a nice series, as I'm sure lots of people would agree.

 

We had friends come over for NYE from New York. They brought along an Other Half stout that was like a chocolate, coconut, carburetor stout that was something like 15%. It's simply not enjoyable, even split four ways. I got to taste Fundamental Observation (which folks were RAVING about) and I dumped my pour. Mott tends do achieve the complexity with less adjuncts and a lower ABV.

Framinghammer -- the OG, the straight up, non BA beer -- is one of my favorite dark beers. The debate of, "I could pay $12 for four of them" vs. "I could pay $10 for one BA variant" isn't a very hard one for me. I do actually really like the Bourbon Barrel Framinghammer, but I don't really do the others.

(As for @matthewp it's interesting that you got a ton of barrel character from the beer. I haven't had that experience. I also haven't had this latest batch yet. That's not par for the course, in my opinion)

 

Do you have to call ahead or just show up curbside?

 

I just showed up and it was easy.

 

I didn’t call ahead, no issues.

 

I would agree on the Framinghammer series, both BA and regular. I also do like that they have adjunct based versions which you can compare and contrast but in general the fewer the adjuncts the better.

With regards to the barrel character, by the end of the beer I was questioning my initial thought of "a lot of barrel character" (I was about 1/2 way through the bottle while I was writing the post). It is certainly there but I think I was looking for it given that there are several barrels involved and it spent extra time in barrels this year according to the description. Once I have the second bottle I will post my thoughts, there was a lot surprising me about this beer which I think was throwing me off. I know for myself I have a very hard time really analyzing a beer after a single bottle, expectations really skew experience, at least for me.