The Bar Towel

iguenard wrote: in the same powerful sense as this year's McAuslan Impy Stout, which is all about whack-you-in-the-face flavours.

Does the McAuslan taste different than last year's batch?

TheSevenDuffs wrote:

iguenard wrote: in the same powerful sense as this year's McAuslan Impy Stout, which is all about whack-you-in-the-face flavours.

Does the McAuslan taste different than last year's batch?

I drank it room temp, so might not be the best first impressions. 2009 I think is the best so far, drank in 2009, it was vanilla, really strong bourbon character, nice strong, chocoloatey base.

The 2010 for me was too acrid. The burnt malt came too strong and overwhelmed the beer.

The 2011, from first impressions is way more "toasty", like toasted malts, light coffee, torrefaction-like character that barely brings any bourbon flavours to light.

Maybe the barrels are too old? Have they been re-using their barrels, sure tastes like it. Though its hard to give a final opinion on a 20'C beer. I'll reserve judgement for when I drink it a tad cooler. But I found it extremely tasty, not as bad as say Dark lord, but surely in Quebec's top-3 strongest flavored beer ever. 5.99$ here, btw.

For the record, I think that only Allagash can produce consistently flavoured barrel aged beers across vintages, mainly because they have such a large barrel program, and display a lot of talent in blending across batches.

Artists, these men are.

biegaman wrote:

iguenard wrote:I happen to like the Ghosttown a LOT.
The anise is strong just like hops is strong in west coast IPAs. If you dont like hops, doesnt mean Pliny is shite beer, and if you dont like anise that much, doesnt mean Ghosttown sucks.

I agree completely. While I don't like absinthe or anise flavour, and hence expected the worst going into the beer, I was impressed

Those are great points, and going on about not liking anise flavors in an absinthe stout has no point. It's like saying German Doppelbocks are not hoppy and extreme enough.

'Shoe - meet other foot!'

Corne Du Diable 4 pack just showed up at my local 'BO. Hopefully I can get over there to pick one up on my break. Now, just have to wait for the Peche Mortel...

I still have a 2008 and some 2009 peche mortel left. will be interesting to do a comparison

sprague11 wrote:I still have a 2008 and some 2009 peche mortel left. will be interesting to do a comparison

Coffee will be real faded.

liamt07 wrote:

sprague11 wrote:I still have a 2008 and some 2009 peche mortel left. will be interesting to do a comparison

Coffee will be real faded.

But it's not! It's still better than awesome. Even better than better than awesome. It keeps getting betterer! It's just smoother and more cohesive. But still lots of coffee.

My all time favorite sampling of Peche Mortel was a keg at the brewpub that as a year or two old and released around Mondial, the coffee diminished and let the chocolatey roast character come through more.

The_Jester wrote:

liamt07 wrote:

sprague11 wrote:I still have a 2008 and some 2009 peche mortel left. will be interesting to do a comparison

Coffee will be real faded.

But it's not! It's still better than awesome. Even better than better than awesome. It keeps getting betterer! It's just smoother and more cohesive. But still lots of coffee.

Agreed, they put the equal of two shots espresso in each bottle, where do you think those volatile aromatic compounds are going to go (answer: they remain in the bottle.) It becomes more smooth and liqueur-like with less 'edge.'

A good investment for the cellar, especially facing world economic collapse over the next week.