Brewery Home: Munster, Indiana

Serving Style: 2 glorious, wax-dipped 650ML bottles, 2009 vintage.

Beer Style: Russian Imperial Stout

Appearance: Blackness. Definitely two cups of rice (Metalocalypse reference, get with it). Viscous and truly ‘like motor oil’. Swirling it around in the glass leaves a brown layer clinging to the sides. Small, dark tan head; bubbles struggle to get to the surface, many get crushed mercilessly on the way. No lacing from the head, the blackness of the brew destroys all. Tom: “it’s blacker than the blackest black times infinity” (another Metalocalypse quote, and quite fitting really). This beer (and bottle, woah…) is incredibly metal. We are all geeking out while we thrash to Hot Cross on the stereo.

Aroma: Hold on tight, a hop hurricane is coming through. Very strong hoppy front that melts into an awesomely weird soy-sauce-milkshake-godly-vanilla tidal wave. Cannon gets sweet fruit (raisin) and brandy kicks too. Think dark fruits and dark roasts. On fire. In a deep dungeon. With Slayer turned up to 11.

Taste: Wow, that’s easily the greatest beer we’ve all suckled on so far. The collective room just had their minds blown. Many people are screaming with excitement and Hot Cross is blasting so here is a group stream of consciousness description of the dark flavor: “DELIVERS. warm wood…starts salty and ends sweet…excellent mouthfeel, smooth and almost creamy, coats the throat…it’s warming me from the inside…beer milkshake…aggressive hop front that morphs into warm (bourbon-y alcohol) roasts and finishes dark and wonderfully evil. Brian: “I wonder what tree this was fermented in.” Scott lays down the understatement of the night: “Wow. Now that’s a fucking beer.” Andy/Jim: “when you get this you get this incredibly euphoric feeling as it goes down your throat.” Some may say that this beer overly sweet, but regardless I think this is right up our collective alley.

ABV: 11.0%

Drink one or all?: One. Enjoy slowly.

Cost: $15/bottle + Golden Ticket + 36 hours of consciousness – some self-respect

Overall: 21/20.
There is a TON of hype around this one (ourselves included). We think this beer can deliver on most of it.

Brewery Hometown: St. Lake City

Appearance: Adam: “it looks like a fucking beer…from a commercial.” Thanks Adam. Clear dark yellow. Crispy. Semi-clear foaming white head.

Aroma: Chris: “a light bag of skittles sweetness…maybe blue moon (coriander)” Strong orange rind tones – go figure, its an orange infused beer.

Taste: The orange rind is the standout player with faint hints of coriander (Joe: “it is rrrrrrripe”) The orange is thankfully not a fake-syrup, but the overall character is slightly too sweet. Chris: “they aren’t kidding when they say rype.” (Clever). Jim: “tastes like a beer with orange in it…what more can I say…its a heavily fruited beer” (Even more clever). Fruity, but perhaps little boring. Andy: “very one note” Chris: “not as exciting as I was hoping to be…not as citrus-y as I was hoping for a bottle with an orange on it and an orange cap…if you’re going to do an ORANGE beer, youve got to go for it, they didn’t” Well put.

Alcohol: 4.0%

Drink one or all?: One

Cost: We guess $8/sixer

Overall: Andy: 12/20, clean but boring, Jim: 12/20 gets old fast, Adam: 13/20 doesn’t excite me, Chris: 14/20 good but not what I wanted, Joey: 13/20 ok, now I’m sick of it, Dan: 12/20 (…)