The Temptress Imperial Milk Stout

I love me some stouts, especially the strong ones, regardless of the time of day or the season or the weather or whatever.  I keep branching out to try new kinds of beers, but i always come back stouts...the lifeblood.  Lakewood Brewing out of Garland, Texas (greater Dallas area) has a strong and tasty offering that i tried for the first time over the weekend, their full-bodied and delicious imperial milk stout, The Temptress.  The beer pours dark, dark black with brown head and smells of malt, chocolate, vanilla, and some alcohol notes.  The flavor is a mix of the aromas, the malt, chocolate, and vanilla pairing with each other perfectly, the sugars making their presence known, and the 9.1% ABV giving you that warm feeling in your chest.  I want to drink this while eating good cheese.  All in all, I really enjoyed this brew and will have to grab some more, though i also have a version brewed with raspberries waiting for me in my fridge too.  More on that delight at a later date.

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Bourbon Barrel Hellfighter 2016

One of my favorite limited beers from the last few years has been the Bourbon Barrel Hellfighter from Houston's Karbach Brewing.  Each year, the brewery does a subtle variation on this imperial porter, and each year, i tend to love it.  Living in Austin, they can also be kind of hard to come by.  They sell out around town pretty quickly, and then they're gone.  I was fortunate enough to snag two bombers this year, the variation this time around being the addition of chocolate.  It's delicious.  The full bodied brew pours a dark black with a good tannish head and smells of coffee, chocolate, and the always lovely bourbon.  The flavor is rich, swirls of chocolate, alcohol, coffee, and malt mixing wonderfully in an 11% ABV dream.  It looks like the Jaguar Shark i'm saving for next year has a buddy now.

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Jaguar Shark

I was pretty bummed out this weekend when Levitation (formerly known as the Austin Psych Fest) was cancelled due to bad weather.  I missed out on a ton of great bands...too many to dwell on here, but needless to say, a cloud hung over my 3-day weekend for the duration.  All that being said, i did get some pretty bitchin consolation prizes out of the deal.  I got to hang out with an old buddy who was also here for the fest, my amazing wife scored two tickets to one of the unbelievably difficult to get into makeup shows that the festival organizers were able to put together at various venues around town, and i scored a couple of bottles of the limited and elusive Jaguar Shark, a bourbon barrel aged, imperial dry Irish stout from Pinthouse Pizza, their second(?) ever bottle release.  And it's a tasty one.  Pouring dark black with a tan head, this 10.7% ABV masterpiece smells of bourbon and oak, a heavy brew that dwells on the tongue with notes of coffee, chocolate, vanilla, and a bit of heat from said bourbon.  It's a dry and sharp wonder, and i'm totally aging one of those bottles for a year at home.

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Here Comes the Sun

It's getting hotter here, and as nice as it is to pick up your sessionable kind of brews for the weekend, sometimes you needs something that's easy to drink, but has a bit more of punch too.  Karbach's Here Comes the Sun is a strong and tasty Belgian style Tripel, pouring a hazy gold with aromas of bread, fruit, and spice.  The beer is crisp with a lot of floral notes on the tongue, as well as some hints of fruit, coriander, and the ever present Belgian yeast.  And it clocks in at 8.5% ABV, making it much stronger than your average daytime drinker, but it is a tasty one, and perfect for dusk and sunsets.

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Stone 2016 Imperial Russian Stout

With all of the craft breweries and that have sprouted up over the last half decade and all of the lovely brews all of those startups have offered us in that time, it's nice to go back and visit one of the original independents every now and then.  Stone Brewing has been giving us excellent beers for years, and their latest limited release Russian Imperial Stout is about as tasty as they come.  Pouring black with a brownish tan head, this thick, 10.8% ABV brew smells of coffee, chocolate, alcohol, and roasty malts.  The flavor is heavy on roastiness, but still smooth even with its high alcohol content, the coffee and chocolate notes easing everything down in a delicious swirl.  This is a damn good beer.

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Freetail Rye Wit

As it begins to get warm and muggy around here, my beer tastes get decidedly lighter, at least during the daylight hours, and the Rye Wit from San Antonio's Freetail Brewing is a fantastic selection for your daytime drinking.  The Belgian style Wit pours a hazy, wheaty gold and smells of bread, coriander, and orange.  Crisp, light-bodied, and steadily drinkable at 4.2% ABV, flavors of citrus, bread, and spice abound, making for a delicious thirst quencher for a warm spring day.  Yum.

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Zilker Coffee Milk Stout

I know it's spring, and it's getting warmer, and i'm supposed to be drinking my beer accordingly, focusing on IPA's and pales, hefes, helles, and lagers, but i love the dark stuff, so enter the Coffee Milk Stout from Zilker Brewing in Austin.  The brew pours dark and black with an off-brown head and smells of coffee, cream, malts, and hints of chocolate.  Flavors of burnt sugar and roasted malt swirl with coffee and chocolate notes in a smooth and creamy brew.  Wait for the sun to go down and then enjoy one or two of these 5.9% ABV stouts.

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