Today Chris, Peter W,  and I are reviewing several different beers.

This is based on the post we wrote a few days ago and the reception it got on this website and on reddit.com.  There were a few beers that were recommended on both sites, so we made a trip to one of our local craft beer suppliers and picked up a few of the mentioned beers.

This review will be be done in 2 parts for each beer.  First, we’ll taste the beer without the ice cream, and then we’ll add the ice cream and drink it as a real beer float.  We’ll only be doing flavor and afterthoughts for the real beer float.  Keeping with the original post, I made a drive out to Hoffmans Ice Cream and picked up some fresh vanilla ice cream and pumpkin ice cream, a half gallon of each.  Also in keeping with the spirit of the day of the original post, we’ll be using my Duvel glasses for the regular beer tastings.

In our ongoing review series we’ll be covering the following 5 items:

• Appearance
• Aroma
• Mouthfeel
• Flavor
• Aftertaste

Here is a quick guide for the beginner http://indybeers.com/beer-tasting-guide/.

About the Various Brewing Companies:

Young’s Beers
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/YoungsBeers
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/wellsandyoungs

North Coast Brewing
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/NoCoastBrewCo
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/northcoastbrewingcompany

Oskar Blues Brewery
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/oskarblues
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BrewedAndCannedByOskarBluesBrewery

Dogfish Head Brewery
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/dogfishbeer
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/dogfishheadbeer

 

 Young’s Chocolate Stout

Without Ice Cream

Appearance

Scott: Looks like Guinness to me, with a little more of a head to it.  As it sits, I’m seeing small bubbles falling through the head.
Chris: My favorite, motor oil.
Peter W: It’s appearance looks thick

Aroma

Scott: Smells like a chocolate stout. Hints of cereal and caramel.
Chris: I barely smell the chocolate.
Peter: I think it has a real chocolatey smell to it.

Mouthfeel

Scott: Velvet-ly with a slight carbonation at the end.
Chris: Creamy on the tongue, buttery texture going down.
Peter W: Smooth and silky.

Flavor

Scott: Thick chocolate flavor evenly layering the taste buds.
Chris: Lightly sweet with hints of chocolate
Peter W:  Chocolate with a hint of coffee

Aftertaste

Scott: Similar to the after taste from bitter chocolate, very pleasant.
Chris: Doesn’t have too much of an aftertaste…stouty
Peter W: It’s like the aftertaste of eating a handful of dark chocolate M&M’s

Final Thoughts

Scott: A great stout, I can see why it was recommended by several people.
Chris: This is an incredible stout and dangerously drinkable.
Peter W: Not being a huge fan of stouts, this is on my radar for future drinking.

Young’s Chocolate Stout

With Vanilla Ice Cream

Flavor

Scott: Wow, this is really good.  When you get the mix just right, POW!!
Chris: This is like dessert.  (Chris finished his in about 1 minute)
Peter W: I’m not digging it with the ice cream. (Peter is not going to finish his)

 

Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout

Without Ice Cream

Appearance

Scott: Thick head with big bubbly foam that after a few minutes completely disappeared.
Chris: Opaque, A lot more carbonation than I expected to see.  Not really sticking to the glass.  Not very viscous.
Peter W: Dark and syrup–y looking

Aroma

Scott: Grainy, malty smell
Chris: I smell sweetness, more so than the Young’s, maybe a woody smell
Peter: Grainy

Mouthfeel

Scott: Lots of small bubbles tickling my tongue
Chris: Like a 9-volt battery all over your tongue with all the bubbles
Peter W: Lots of carbonation

Flavor

Scott: Like a dark chocolate coffee….
Chris: Slightly sweet and roasted coffee.
Peter W:  Yuk.

Aftertaste

Scott: …with a long lingering after taste of darker coffee.
Chris: Somewhat bitter, perhaps too much.
Peter W: Too much.

Final Thoughts

Scott: Not too bad.  I’m looking forward to enjoying some ice cream with this one.
Chris: This was my first Old Rasputin Imperial Stout and won’t be my last. I’m excited to see how it works with the ice cream, as well.
Peter W: I would never choose to drink that again.

Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout

With Vanilla Ice Cream

Flavor

Scott: All bitterness is gone, and this is really good.  I would consider serving this at a restaurant.
Chris: The sweetness of the ice cream neutralizes the bitterness of the beer, bringing out a roasted taste, like roasted marshmallow. (finished in less than 2 minutes)
Peter W: It’s definitely more drinkable with the ice cream.  With the ice cream I would consider having another.

Oskar Blues Ten Fidy Imperial Stout

Without Ice Cream

Appearance

Scott:  Darkest of the three.  A thick head that was gone in 60 seconds (great soundtrack).
Chris: Very dark with carbonation that sticks to the glass and doesn’t float up.
Peter W: Peter tapped out on this one, as he is not much of a stout guy.

Aroma

Scott: Not much of a nose with a slight tilt towards grainy. 
Chris: I agree with Scott. Almost devoid of aroma. Perhaps a clean smell.

Mouthfeel

Scott: Syrup-y thickness with not a lot of carbonation, but enough to let you know it’s there.
Chris: Watery with almost all the carbonation gone from when it was originally poured. Very easy to drink.

Flavor

Scott: Really bitter compared to the others.  I’m feeling that by chance we went from light to heavy with our tasting.
Chris: Like the smell, it seems very average. Pushes between creamy and soapy. I really expected it to have more flavorful. 

Aftertaste

Scott: I’m thinking doing 3 stouts in 1 night with ice cream wasn’t the best decision, unless it really is that heavy.
Chris: Not all that good. Somewhat acidic.

Final Thoughts

Scott: I’ll give it a clean slate try another time (we have a few left), but my hopes aren’t too high.  If you love a HEAVY stout, this is for you.
Chris: As a stout lover, I found this to be disappointing.  I’ll give it another try because of all the stuff we have on our pallets.

Oskar Blues Ten Fidy Imperial Stout

With Vanilla Ice Cream

Flavor

Scott: Even with ice cream the bitterness is difficult to overcome.
Chris:  The ice cream didn’t spice this up much at all. Still disappointed.

Dogfish Head Punkin

With Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream

(In light of the night, I’m skipping right to the ice cream as this beer is in my wheelhouse)

Appearance

Scott: Looks like a light colored Orange Julius with ice cream.
Chris: Throwing in the towel, too much ice cream for the night.
Peter W: See Chris’ comment above

Aroma

Scott: Pumpkin smell is just smacking you in the face.

Mouthfeel

Scott: Well, when you have the ice cream mixed in, it’s the texture of a good pumpkin pie

Flavor (I made Peter and Chris taste)

Scott: If I could get pumpkin pie this good, I would eat it all day.
Chris: Mmmmm…(Chris won’t stop eating my drink)…”You might want to get your own”.
Peter W:  Give me some whipped topping.

Aftertaste

Scott: The best part of a long night, satiation from a good meal.

Final Thoughts

Scott: Best of the four, without a doubt.

 

Overall End Notes

The whole process took 2.5 hours with 4 more afterwards to setup and finish writing the article.  I would say this worked really well, but doing this many beers in one night may have skewed the results.  To help keep things in perspective we were sticking our noses into a cup of coffee beans in-between a lot of the smelling and tasting.

Scott:  I would say it worked best when the ice cream was mushed a little and not one big scoop.  Getting the mix of ice cream and beer just right was the key.  For me I liked the Dogfish the best, with Young’s taking second, Old Rasputin grabbing third, and the Ten Fidy coming in last.  I have a feeling this weekend I’m going to have a few more of these.  I may even get my family in on the mix when they come over for Halloween.

Chris: As a stout lover, the Young’s Double Chocolate and Old Rasputin Russian Imperial impressed both alone and with ice cream. I feel like the Oskar Blues Ten Fidy was a let down, but I would definitely give it another chance. After drinking the other two first and with ice cream, I feel like my taste buds were overworked. This was a fun experiment which I will have no problem partaking in again.

Peter W:  A Stout would not be the first beer that I would pick, but the two that I reviewed were worth while.  The chocolate was a nice start, but the ice cream was lacking.  The other was not up my alley, but add the ice cream, it was really good.   The pumpkin was like pie without the whip topping, not that you needed it.  Really good.