Sunday Beer Blog

Stopped by Ravens Ring Brewing Company today before some grocery shopping. I had the Noel which is 7.9% ABV and 23 IBU. Word has it it’s only on tap through end of the month so get yours soon. It’s definitely a winter festive beer and is spice forward. Super dark with a light mouthfeel and a very pleasant sipper. It was a wonderful accompaniment to the snow outside.

Nevermore & Noel

Derek enjoyed the Nevermore imperial stout. It’s 9.7% ABV and 40 IBU. I snuck a sip and it had a very creamy coconut start with a smooth mouthfeel. It was also dark as night. We brought some of this home.

A HUGE happy birthday to Ravens Ring. What a glorious addition to Southside.

Brewery: Raven’s Ring Brewing Company

Sunday Beer Blog

This Sunday’s offering is from Black Plague Brewing. The imperial milk stout, Medusa, is brewed with coconut, maple syrup, and cacao nibs.

Medusa

It’s dark in color, pours with little head, and clings to the glass. It smells sweet with no particular ingredient aroma overwhelming the senses. The mouthfeel is very light and moderately effervescent for an ABV of 8%, and chocolate and coconut are the stars of the first sip.

Overall, I shared this 16oz can with Derek and I was happy I did. It drank like a dessert beer so more would have been too much for me. This beer was a nice part of my La Bodega beer club, but I don’t think I’ll purchase it in the future.

Black Plague Medusa
Dark & Dessert-y

Brewery: Black Plague Brewing

ABV: 8%

Purchase Location: La Bodega

Sunday Beer Blog: Petroleum

Valentine’s Day was celebrated in the best way ever this year- Deadpool on the big screen! I also got roses and beer, but Deadpool truly took the fucking cake. In honor of a perfect holiday spent with my man, I decided to make this blog entry a bit mushy. There are hearts, there are roses, and there’s beer. Go ahead, throw up in your mouth a little. At least make those gross, dry-heave noises.

No really, take a minute.

ValDayBlog

Ok, so the Valentine’s beer was Petroleum. It was an imperial stout by Belo, a brewery out of Brazil.  I was intrigued by this one due to its being brewed with cocoa powder. The label itself advertises a beer “loaded with cocoa chocolate and coffee aromas”. As I’m sure you’ve noticed I love a good chocolate beer, so this was a must try for me.

Upon first poor it was clear this beer was well named. “Pours like oil too,” were the first words out of my husband’s mouth, and I quickly noticed there was zero head to speak of. The brew was as black as I’ve seen, and had an extremely yeasty smell.

ValDayBlog2

Still having faith in the label’s description, I took a sip. As luck would have it, Derek did too. (We usually wait for each other so we can read each other’s expression, or beerspression if you will, but not this time.) Derek’s initial take was it was certainly a sipping beer. Mine was it sips like oil too. Sips is redundant. That’s not by accident. This beer has a pleasant taste, but please dear reader, sip it.

While there was a chocolate flavor, I was reminded of many a coffee stout I’ve tried in the past. The mouthfeel is thick and chewy, so it was hard to tease out the sweetness. This was not a beer I’d crave and the flavor lingers long enough to remind you not to believe everything you read on labels.

Brewer: Belo

Beer Style: Imperial Stout

Region: Brazil

Alcohol Content: 11%

Purchased: Anchorage Wine House