Untitled Art / Angry Chair Chocolate Vanilla Maple Imperial Stout

Collaborations between breweries often result in the most fantastic of beers, and i've got to say that the Chocolate Vanilla Maple Imperial Stout from Waunakee, Wisconsin's Untitled Art and Tampa Bay, Florida's Angry Chair ranks right up there with anything i've ever had.  This 12% ABV beast pours the blackest of blacks with a tan/brown head, the aromas of maple, chocolate, vanilla, brown sugar, dark fruits, and roasted barley hitting the nose instantly.  The flavor is a boozy mix of maple at the forefront followed by the notes of chocolate and vanilla and plenty of sugar, all in a velvety smooth stout.  If you're looking for dessert in a can, look no further.

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Real Ale Magnum Trux

Real Ale has been putting out quality beer for a long time now, and some of their best and most interesting brews arrive to us via the brewery's fantastic Mysterium Verum series, small batches of barrel aged and sour beers that are variations of their usual year round or seasonal fare.  My favorite beer the brewery makes is their Black Quad, a lovely Belgian Quadruple ale that's been one of my go-to beers for at least half a decade now.  So, i was pumped to see it used as the base brew for Magnum Trux, a 10.3% ABV barrel-aged sour quad with black currants.  There's a lot going on there.  After primary fermentation, the beer is then aged in oak barrels for four months with some added house culture yeast, and then come the black currants.  Pouring ruby black with a quickly dissipating white head, the brew smells of currants, dark fruit, and some overall sourness.  The flavor is a mix of sweet and sour, notes of currant, fig, other dark fruit, and some slight hints of spice, all in a smooth and drinkable mouthfeel.  All in all, it's a complex yet very drinkable sour brew.

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Ommegang Stormcrusher

Cooperstown, New York's Ommegang Brewery tends to keep it interesting with their releases, and their more recent, a collaboration with Houston's Brash Brewing, is interesting indeed.  And pretty delicious too.  The Stormcrusher is a 9.7% ABV Belgian quadruple ale brewed with blueberries and coffee, and it's about as complex and tasty a brew as your liable to come across.  Pouring a slightly purplish brown with a bubbly off-white head, the beer smells of coffee and blueberries with notes of caramel and malt in the mix as well.  The flavor feels heavier on the coffee at first before giving way to sweeter blueberry notes and then leveling off with a sweet and malty full-bodied mouthfeel.  What a wonderful beer.

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Cigar City Florida Cracker

Last week, i spent a few days in the happiest goddamn place on earth, as the family and i made our way to central Florida for some high times with the Mouse.  Yeah, we went to Disney.  Anyway, the daily visits to the theme park was not about me.  It was about my kids, and they loved it.  But in the evening, back at the condo, watching the sun go down as my feet ached and ached, well...that was about me.  And what better way to wind down than with some tasty beverages from one of my favorite breweries, Tampa Bay's Cigar City.  The delightfully named Florida Cracker, a Belgian-style white ale with orange peel and coriander, was my go to for the trip.  The 5.5% ABV brew was light, crisp, and sweet, notes of orange and coriander layered against some slight spiciness from the Belgian yeast that hit both the nose and the tongue with zesty aplomb.  I could quite literally drink it all day long.  So, if you ever find yourself in the magic kingdom, be sure to equip yourself with some wind-down libations to ease the pain and dim the noise.

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