Pipeworks Imperial Spumoni Jones Dog Imperial Milk Stout

Pipeworks Imperial Spumoni Jones Dog Imperial Milk Stout.

10.5 % ABV. Pipeworks Brewing, Chicago, IL. 

Utter darkness, absolute opacity, slim to no head. 

In the nose: Huge chocolate, some vanilla, and then the raspberry. Strawberry? Some berry. It's there. It's nutty. Pistachio? It's there. Whoa. I'm liking this. 

In the mouth: Once on board the palate, there it is: cherry, sweetness, vanilla, chocoalate. Creamy. Rich, thick-ish, smooth, delicious. All of the flavors are there in attendance. They made an Imperial Stout that matches spumoni ice cream. Ain't nothing wrong with that. 

Good spumoni Imperial Stout and you can drink it. Yum. Yum a dum dum. 

Imperial stout ale with cacao nibs, vanilla, lactose, cherries, and natural pistachio flavor

Indeed Pistachio Cream Ale

Indeed Pistachio Cream Ale.
5.5 % ABV. 15 IBU.
Indeed Brewing Company, Minneapolis, MN.

This is not my kind of beer. I don't really drink cream ales. And, pistachio? Well, I do enjoy them, and I've really gotten into that new Ben & Jerry's flavor. But does that flavor belong in a beer? Huh, does it? Well, I bought it, so let's find out...

Clear, bright golden color, slimmest ivory head.

In the nose: Nutty and sweet, from the start. It's definitely as advertised. There it is, in a beer.

In the mouth: You know, it's tasty! Nutty and sweet, but well-balanced. Light bodied, easy drinking, refreshing...and pistachio! Creamy, smooth and very flavorful. I like it!
(If in small doses.)

This is a beer that I scoffed at when I first heard of it, but it works. It's not the sort of thing I drink, so I'll be socking the rest of the cans away for tasting parties, and such.

Lupulin Imperial Hazelnut Truffle Porter

Lupulin Imperial Hazelnut Truffle Porter. 9 % ABV. 30 IBU. Lupulin Brewing, Big Lake, MN.

Dark brown, opaque rich tan head on top.

In the nose: Sweet and malty. Nutty. Chocolatey. Mmmm. Ah, yes. Utterly lovely.

In the mouth: Bigness and richness. A mountain of malt. I'm getting the hazelnut, large, with additional doses of vanilla, cocoa, espresso. Smooth and delicious. This one went down in no time. I slurped it, nearly guzzled it. Mighty fine.




Deliciously decadent, this Imperial Porter is infused with the rich flavors of chocolate and hazelnut. A beer this smooth and silky ought to be a sin. Sometimes it feels good to be bad...

Broken Clock Pocket Watch Pecan Brown

Broken Clock Pocket Watch Pecan Brown Ale. 6.5% ABV. 23 IBU. Broken Clock Brewing Cooperative, Minneapolis, MN.

Lightly hazed, crimson/brownish coloring, nice cocoa-tinged head atop.

In the nose: sweet, nutty, malty, balanced, and enticing, to be sure. Right on.

In the mouth: On comes the malty sweetness, here comes the nutty flavor, and it's wonderfully textured and terrifically tasty. Some caramel, some cocoa, but never too much Just enough bitterness to keep it in check. Perfect balance. Long, malty/dry finish. Altogether excellent. Very nice.

I have every reason to be skeptical of brewing operations that begin with home brewers with no other experience. They have worked before, many times, but there's still the chance that they won't. Always that chance. And it's not happening here. I think this is the sixth offering I've sampled from these guys and they've all been solid. I hope to visit the brewery soon and get a few more tastes. Maybe they'll get their taproom before too long and I can while away some time with a pint or two.

Biscuity, nutty, carmely brown ale brewed with brown sugar and praline pecans from Midwest Northern Nut. Inspired by Jeremy Gharineh #16

Dangerous Man Peanut Butter Porter

Dangerous Man Peanut Butter Porter.
This is one I've heard of for a while and was glad to find it on tap when I paid the taproom a visit last week. I'd been sitting on 3 64-ounce growlers that I hadn't used in two years. (there's a reason why I never went back to fill my growlers, but I won't go into it now.)I took two of them with me and turned them in for credit, $5 each, then purchased a 750 ml growler of the PB P. Next chance I get, I'll take the other 64  ounce and this one when it's empty, turn that into a 750 ml of another beer, then I'm down to eighteen! Only eighteen! That's almost a quarter of what I had a few months ago. Such marvelous progress. I can clean out my cupboards.

So, anyway. Once more, I'm opening this without any real knowledge of it. Real peanut butter? How much? How'd they get it in there? How'd they get it off the back of the spoon?  Creamy-style or chunky? So many questions. I'll look for answers in a bit. For now, let's crack it open and drink it up.

Appearance: deep black, under a rich, toasty brown head, looking good.

Aroma: sweetness and nuts starts it off. Earthy, and malty, and doggone it, peanut-buttery. Scarcely a note of hop bitterness to be found anywhere. Dark malts and peanut butter.

Taste: All of that and more, on the palate. Medium-bodied, with a semi-sweet finish. The full flowering of the peanut-buttery-ness seems to wane a bit after the start. Let's give it another chance,….well, it's sweet, nutty, pleasant, drinkable, and I don't think I would ever have two in a row. Or finish off a growler by myself again. It is what it is, and what it is, is okay. Beer, and I can drink it.

Oh, I can answer one question. Creamy-style. I haven't encountered any peanut chunks yet.

P.S. I've looked it up on their website. Here's all the information I can get out of them. IBUS
29
ABV (%)
5.3
FLAVOR NOTES
Peanut butter, chocolate, hints of coffee and toast.
FOOD PAIRINGS
Desserts fo sho. Get creative with other peanut dishes. Pair with caramelized meats, curry dishes, and Thai food.

Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar Ale

Part of this project called the Bitter Nib is re-visiting old beers, as much as trying out new ones. Very often I find myself looking at the old notes, taken before I started posting my reviews here, and find them satisfactory. Other times, such as today, I pass my eyes over them and find those notes lacking. Outdated. Not quite appropriate.

Today, I look at Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar, Ale with Natural Hazelnut Nectar, with fresh eyes. Let's do it:

Appearance: thoroughly hazed, caramel brown coloring, large and lasting cocoa/tan head.

Aroma: sweet malt notes first off, with nutty overtones. Quite nice.

Taste: Once on board the palate, it's sweet as she gets. Notes of molasses and brown sugar, dark malts of all stripe, drowned out by hazelnut nectar. Hop bitterness steps in to tamp down sweetness just a step, but it's large and in charge to be sure. Medium bodied, long, malty finish. A rich, tasty treat, but not one I'd reach for very often. A once in a while shot of decadence.

Here, for kicks, is the effusiveness I dropped on the internet back in April of 2004:

"Deeply, darkly, tawny brown color, with a smallish head, cocoa-tan hued...aroma: sweet, roasty, very malty, lush and chocolatey, nuts aplenty.
Taste: goodness! Ever-so sweet! Yum! No hops, huge, caramely malt, but full-on sweetness, thickly textured...wow, the high-concept is thrown in high-relief here, as I can think of no other expression so sure of this particular style, their aim is true, and they hit the mark perfectly. Hazelnut, yes, so rich, and thick, and an excellent dessert brew, something to adequately fill in for Frangelico, if the need arises.
They bring it on full-bore on this one, wow, it's a choice brew, indeed!
Hey, do a specially-flavored brew, do it all the way, that's what I say, and that's what Rogue does here!"

Did I ever love the exclamation points back then. I'm pretty much cured these days.
("choice brew", man, what was I thinking?)

Lazy Magnolia Southern Pecan Brown Ale

Lazy Magnolia, Mississippi's Brewery. Southern Pecan, the original pecan nut brown ale. Smooth and sweet, English-style brown ale. brewed and bottled by Lazy Magnolia Brewing Company, LLC., in Kiln, MS.

Clear, bright ruby red appearance, slim, soon-gone whitish head.

Aroma, …I'm sorry, I'm not finding anything, nothing's here. I want to talk about malts and nuts, and such forth, but this is almost criminally absent. Nada, zilch, nyet.

Taste: Beer. Malt. Mmm. Taste. But, not tasty. Eh. Ah…Gee…whiz.

Okay, dum, de dum…have I had this before? Something tells me I should have, and I forgot to check. It certainly never made enough of an impression on me that I remembered.

{Guess what, I have had it, 4+ years ago, in October of 2008. Here are those notes:

Reddish brown body, creamy, cocoa-tinted head. Lovely stuff.

Sweet malt greets the nose right off, fat and fruity and with plenty of bright, rounded nuttiness.

Hitting the tongue, an even, balanced affair, malt in center stage, minor hops, but never too much of the sweetness. Very tasty stuff, actually, meaty and full. I'm no pecan expert, but I like what's getting on my tastebuds. Smooth, warm, and deep. Scrumptious, too.

Full-bodied, long, sweet, but tempered finish. This is one I could turn to a couple of times, at least.}

I will continue with the new notes:



And now I would like to take time out to read the label…
"Southern Pecan, the original pecan nut brown ale, is the first beer in the world made with whole, roasted pecans. Using a careful balance of the finest malts, aromatic hops and roasted pecans, Southern Pecan is delightfully smooth and has a nutty sweetness that …(sorry, this part has been worn away from the paper label)…a delightful….(sorry, again!)…

…I will take a break from that break again, and try to drink it once more.

The taste is not making a mark on me. I'm not getting any sweetness or anything from these pecans ..or anything. It all melts into a wash of nothing but nothing. I am sorry, I am trying.

Here's more: "Here along the banks of the Jourdain River, in a region long known for having the best water for bootleg whiskey, we found that water also provides a perfect balance of softness and alkalinity to bring out the rich flavor and smoothness of dark malts."

Southern Pecan was a Bronze Award winner in the Specialty Beer Category of the 2006 World Beer cup, but we do not brew our beers for awards, we brew our beers for you."

Thanks, but…"pass." Nothing's happening here. Well, "some" "thing", maybe, but …not enough to talk about. Sigh...

Hmmm, what happened? Maybe the newest one is an old bottle? That's all I can think. I liked it years ago, and yet today it did nothing for me. Freshness, people! Let that be our watchword!