This was actually a busy beer weekend for me, but I stockpiled written beer reviews that will release over the next few weeks rather than check them in with a few brief comments. So, Untappd (drewsbrewsreviews) is a little light on check-ins. That will change with the impending Black Friday event at Capone’s unleashing the flood of fantastic beers that will surely culminate in the Untappening. I look forward to highlighting the best of my favorite yearly event, so that’ll be ready next week. In the meantime, here’s what I checked in the week past.
Sierra Nevada– Narwhal (Bourbon Aged)
Location: Bulls Head Pub
Style: Imperial Stout (Bourbon Aged)
Score: 3.5/5
Original Comment: Buttery bourbon, vanillian, roast aroma, med mf, dark malt, chocolate/vanilla, raisin/plum finish, lingering heat. Decent, but too expensive.
Additional Comment: My “too expensive “comment is slightly disingenuous as I didn’t actually pay for it. A friend of mine did and was kind enough to share some with me. Plus, this was also purchased at a bar, which comes with a markup. That said, there are very few beers I will pay $30 for, and this is no where near one of them. A price around $12 – $15 seems about right based on what I had. Narwhal is on the lower end of imperial stouts I enjoy, I like mine on the heavier, near Russian Imperial levels, and Sierra Nevada’s imp stout is too thin and dark fruit heavy for my tastes. Obviously, if Narwhal is your jam, I can’t see you disliking a bourbon barreling of it. The difficulty in landing a bottle, at least around the Lancaster PA region, makes this a buy it when you see it beer. Mostly likely you aren’t going to see it again anytime soon.
St. Boniface – Paideia Pale Ale
Location: Bulls Head Pub
Style: Pale Ale
Score: 3.5/5
Original Comment: Muted malt sweet, floral citrus aroma, med mf, almost creamy, rye spice, caramel malt sweet. Grain bitter fin. Heavy/sweet for a pale. Nice
Additional Comment: I will admit that I purposely photobombed the picture with a high profile DIPA I was going to drink later that night to see if anyone noticed. St. Boniface did and busted me for it, but I assure them and you that it’s grade A Boniface in that glass. Paideia is one of the better local gems that doesn’t get enough credit in the larger beer scene. Malt forward pale that has some body and a floral aroma that would make some IPAs jealous. Solid beer.
Stone Brewing – Sprocketbier (Black Rye Kolsch)
Location: Bulls Head Pub
Style: Kolsch
Score: 3.5/5
Original Comment: Peaty, rye spicy, roast aroma, thin, grainy tang front, roasty coffee bitter finish. Like a Kolsch mixed w/ black coffee. Interesting result
Additional Comment: I probably wouldn’t have mentioned this had it been a normal week of beer sampling, but here we are. I don’t have much else to add or really any insight beyond my original comment. Several people I was with didn’t care for it at all, so you may want to sample this one first.
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