Cigar City - Cucumber Saison

Cucumber Saison is an early summer release for Cigar City that is distributed normally throughout their network. Unfortunately, that doesn't include California, so I had to trade for this one. I couldn't find brewer's notes for it, but it's a 5% ABV saison brewed with -- you guessed it -- cucumber.

Appearance: The beer is a rich, cloudy amber color with an aggressively thick head that recedes only very little as I drink and leaves tons of dense, pebbled lacing on the sides of the glass.

Smell: Do you like cucumbers? Then you'll love this nose! There's some of the usual saison character, and notes of clove and grain, but the cucumber is the star of the show.

Taste: This beer tastes like it smells. It's a tasty -- but standard -- saison, yeast forward with barnyard character and Belgian-style spice. The cucumber elevates it, but at the same time, it is the dominant flavor and doesn't allow for much complexity.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied, with lightness from the carbonation, and a dry finish.

Overall: This was a good and enjoyable beer, but not a particularly enlightening one that's exemplary for the style. I love cucumber, so personally, I really enjoyed that aspect of the flavor profile, but if I'm being honest that is pretty much all there is. It's like eating a mediocre dish with bacon -- you don't mind that the rest of it is just okay because you love bacon so much. (I'm assuming you love bacon. Because if you don't, we can't be friends.)

3/5

New Glarus - Thumbprint Enigma

New Glarus says: "A few times a year we cut Dan loose to brew whatever he chooses. Always handcrafted, the bottle you hold is brewed for the adventurous soul. This is a very limited edition and we make no promises to ever brew this style again.

A complex and intriguing original. The mystery began with wild yeast spontaneously fermenting a rich treasure of malted barley and cherries. Unlined Oak casks breathe deep vanilla hues and chords of smoke into this sour brown ale. Our Master Brewer has forged a smooth garnet tapestry that defies description. Wander off the beaten path."

That just about does it, no? This sour brown ale is 5.5% ABV and was sent by a friend.

Appearance: This is a densely carbonated, clear, garnet-red beer that initially pours off about 1 finger in head. The head then recedes to about the level you see in the photo and eventually down to nothing.

Smell: So complex! Sour notes of apple, cider vinegar, raspberry, cranberry, oak, and vanilla.

Taste: Wow -- this is complex, like the nose, incredibly well balanced, and has subtle flavors that play with each other on the palate. I get cherry, oak, a bit of sweetness, some spice -- it's overall reminiscent of tart cherry pie.

Mouthfeel: I usually think of sours as being very light bodied and heavily carbonated. Despite looking that way, Enigma drinks creamy, super smooth and dense, and the carbonation actually feels very light. This is a nice surprise. Generally I like the lighter body in a sour, but drinking this in the winter made me appreciate the denser character as it added perceived weight and warmth.

Overall: This was a stellar beer and I'm sorry I didn't get more of it! I couldn't believe the complexity of scents and flavors, and everything melded really well together. I don't have a lot more to say -- this was incredible and if they ever do make this again, I want a case of it.

5/5

Tyranena Brewing Company - Who's Your Daddy?

I don't have a ton of information about this one! I know the October 2012 vintage was bottled in very limited amounts this year, and that it is brewed very irregularly; allegedly the last time was in 2006! Wow! So thank you, as always, to a good beer friend from the Midwest who sent this my way. Who's Your Daddy? is an Imperial Porter, and I don't honestly know what the ABV was, but it's probably somewhere in the low double-digits.

Appearance: The beer appears to be an opaque inky black with a dense head that pretty well matches my bamboo cutting board backdrop! The head recedes down to about that layer that you see in the photo above.

Smell: This is one of the best-smelling porters I have ever smelled, period. Huge notes of bourbon and accompanying vanilla and molasses; there is also a spicy, roasted coffee note and even a scent of dark fruit like cherry. Incredible!

Taste: Not quite as richly complex as the nose, but still delicious, with notes of vanilla, molasses, smoke, bourbon, and mocha.

Mouthfeel: WYD? is full bodied, super creamy, and lightly carbonated. This mouthfeel is spot-on for what I want a beer like this to feel like.

Overall: This isn't a beer that got a lot of hype, and thus it was a pretty unknown entity when I received it. Big props to my friend for sending this over, because this was a fantastic beer. The nose alone on this was out of this world, and the taste -- though not as complex, as I mentioned -- was still well-balanced and varied. The mouthfeel was also perfect too. I think this beer kind of knocked it out of the park on some technical details. It's great tasting, but it goes above and beyond in other areas that are easy to forget when they're not as fantastically memorable as they were here. I'm not sure what the schedule is like for this beer to return to bottles, but if it ever does I'll be wanting more!

5/5

Ballast Point - Victory at Sea (2011 vs. 2012)

The label says: "Two of the world’s oldest beverages join forces to conquer your palate.  Victory as Sea embodies the art of masterful brewing by infusing a velvety Imperial Porter with pure vanilla flavor and specially selected, band of roasted coffee.  The addition of cold brewed coffee to the beer lends a subtle roasted flavor to this robust imperial porter, blending perfectly with rich vanilla and caramel undertones.  By uniting two San Diego brewing traditions, Caffe Calabria freshly brewed coffee and Ballast Point beer, we have successfully created a artisanal masterpiece. "

Victory at Sea Imperial Porter checks in at 10% ABV. It's released in late November by Ballast Point, and though it sees wide distribution through BP's usual network, it tends to get swept up by the end of the month. For a slight change of pace, I tried the 2011 vintage, and the following night, the 2012 vintage, to see how much this beer changes over a year. Overall, the flavor notes were the same, but the balance, profile, and intensity of those flavors were slightly different.

Appearance: Both vintages are deep brown, almost black, and look opaque in the glass but actually do have a bit of noticeable clarity from some angles. Both pour a mocha-colored head that is about 1 finger in height and recedes to a thin foam layer on top of the beer. Neither exhibited much lacing on the glass.

Smell: Main notes include tempered coffee and vanilla. Roasted character is there, but it's not overwhelming or robust. The vanilla is much more present in the 2012 vintage than in the 2011.

Taste: The coffee and vanilla are both more forward in the taste, and bitter cacao is also present. The vanilla provides a bit of creamy sweetness, but other than that this beer does not come across as very malty. Again, the 2012 vintage is more vanilla-forward than the 2011, which is more mellow overall and has almost a nutty character from the subdued toasted malt.

Mouthfeel: Both vintages have a similar (and probably indistinguishable) mouthfeel: medium bodied, creamy, with light carbonation.

Overall: These are world-class imperial porters. The flavors are distinct and meld well together, but they are not overpowering. Some imperial "porters" are more in the glass of stouts than porters, and they kind of cheat. This beer, I think, stays nicely within the porter category but is exemplary in it. Because of their relatively low cost, I like to grab a few of these so I can have them throughout the year. I was lucky enough to have one left from last year, which was why I was able to do this (sort of) side-by-side! Overall, my assessment is that this beer is neither helped nor hindered by the extra year on it. The same core flavors are there, but they just play a bit differently on the palate. This is definitely an annual release worth seeking out.

4/5