I like beer

And so, on Wednesdays I hope to share with you my impressions of unusual and distinct beers that I may try Tues night. My bias tends to be toward strong beer with character so some of my selections may be a little rough for those used to commercial and light beer (wussies).

I’m not going to use some silly point scale to rate these because I think your own personal preferences are going to be a much more important factor as to whether or not you would enjoy a particular drink.

To start off the series I have a big beer from the Avery Brewing Company in Colorado.
http://www.averybrewing.com/avery/BigBeers/docs/reverend The Reverend is a so-called Belgian Quadruple ale, with almost a cherry-red amber color to it. It has a modest head and an interesting fruity smell with a strong alcohol presence. The taste is powerfully sweet but the alcohol presence is surprisingly mild considering that this one weighs in with a huge 10% abv! This reminds me of Paulaner’s Salvator double bock. It does have a bit of fruit flavor but has a pretty mild aftertaste. Halfway through this one I can start to feel the heat of the 10%, this is very sweet, candy flavored, perhaps too much so for a beer with a religious theme to it. After I’ve finished, the aftertaste seems to exert itself a little more, it’s nice and long now.

A good beer, it would be too strong for most people’s tastes and it’s expensive so be careful if you don’t know if you’re up for this one.

Well, since that one was a big 10% and a 22ozer I figured I’ll put off opening my Germans until next week. Here’s one that I enjoyed last week:

Founders Imperial Stout http://www.foundersales.com/pages/beerpageinfo.html is made by a local brewing company here in Michigan. The color of this beer is absolutely pitch black, it was actually a lot of fun to pour, I think this is the blackest beer I have ever seen! The smell and taste of this beer is just a great example of the imperial stout style, a little bitter but not too much so, but thick and strong. This beer tastes like Turkish coffee. I think stouts and dark beer can be drank any time of the year but just in case you’re wondering it was about 35 degrees outside last week when I had this. Founders (in MI not the one that I think is in France) has made a couple of really nice beers that are quite affordable, I might have to see if I can find the other styles around here or perhaps visit the brewpub. I’m not sure what there distribution is like but I highly recommend trying one of theirs if you can find it.