New Beer Sunday (Week 633)

Good evening, friends.

I am very excited to be home and ready to enjoy my new beer for NBS!

Today is the first day of my work week, so participating in this thread has been yet another thing to look forward to at the end of my "Monday". It has also been a pleasure, when given a few brief moments to myself, to read through many of your posts and wonderful descriptions of the fine beers y'all have enjoyed today. I am especially excited about the beer I have selected for today as it is one I have been meaning to try for a long time and never did pick up. Then, yesterday, my wife surprised me with a few beers (April is our anniversary month and it is not uncommon for us to give gifts throughout the month) and it was among them.

So now, for New Beer Sunday, I have a new beer to drink and it will be my first from Prairie:

Prairie - BOMB!

4.69/5 rDev +4.7%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.75

12oz bottle poured into a snifter
13%ABV

Pours pitch black in color with a dark beige, one finger head that reduces to a ring around the glass and a thin cap of film. The head has very little retention as it reduces to nothing as you drink and leaves behind very little lacing.

The aroma features bold coffee, vanilla beans, alcohol, chocolate, and Chile pepper spice.

As it warms the chocolate smell becomes stronger and the aroma is dominated by chocolate and coffee.

The taste features coffee and alcohol heat up front, followed by chocolate, roasted dark malts, and slight heat from the chile peppers. The finish is sweet vanilla. Alcohol is noticable and warming as you drink. The myriad flavors are well balanced.

Mouth feel is smooth as silk, full bodied and thick. Very nice.

Overall: Wow! I love stouts brewed in the "Mexican hot chocolate" style and this one is near perfect. It's well balanced, smooth, and oh so tasty!


Now to move on to another brew, relax with the wife and watch some hockey on the last day of the NHL regular season.

Cheers!

 

NBS #4/4 and completing my devilish theme.

Dessert was Devil's Food cake.


And the nightcap is Mephistopheles' Stout by Avery Brewing Co.

Bottled October 2016

Wow. This is one big, intense bro. Not that the 14.6% ABV didn't warn me. The appearance of dark and par for the style and the poor seems quite viscous. The aroma is very complex. Dark fruitiness is the first smell that jumps out. It also has some roast characteristics along with some yeast funk. The Taste is even more complex. A big raisin quality is accompanied by a surprisingly dense sugary sweetness. The finish is rather dry and roasty, but the sweetness lingers. The texture is very thick and coating; exactly what I am looking for in a stout of this magnitude. The price (and the fact that it is retired) are the only real downfalls of this beer. Great sipper.

4.2/5

Goodnight, NBS(M?)!

 

I know it's been said, but still ... dude ... that goat!

 

Thanks a lot for the endorsement, man .

How'd you come by that one? Is it on the shelves around here?

 

Nice! I need to make some of these =)

 

Always such a great read! This thread, to me, symbolizes the beauty of this community. Anyhow...New Beer Supplication!!! So psyched to finally try this beer from the famed Russian River. I've become more and more a fan of the 375 ml format - those honking 750 ml bottles are too much for me to tackle, especially when my neighborhood beer-buddy isn't a fan of wild/sour/funky ales.

Something about the weight of the bottle coupled with the primary color-minimalist-religiously-themed label heightens anticipation. Pours beautiful out of the bottle - an amber hue with a thin head. Aroma is must, oak, overripe cherries and green apple. The taste follows right along in a cascade of sweet, sour, funky and woody. There's an impeccable dry crispness that zips to the back of my mouth and zaps my palate with a flanking attack. Wonderful feel. Great way to end the week and look ahead to some warm weather in MA. Have a great Monday, all.

 

I requested it from a Chicagoan.

 

I have always thought it was a little reminiscent of Pliny. Glad to hear someone else agree.

 

Good call; hope you got more than one .