Bourbon Barrel aged beers from Founders. A brewery known for producing consistently high-quality beers, and sometimes brilliant high-gravity beers. Then sometimes, they decide to put them in oak barrels. That’s how you get these beers.

Backwoods Bastard: This is a bourbon barrel aged version of their Dirty Bastard Scotch ale. While Ian doesn’t normally like Dirty Bastard (not that into the style, to be honest), he happens to love Backwoods. Get a bottle and put it in your cellar. Better yet, get a few, save some, and drink some now. Go ahead, we’ll wait for you to get back from the store.

Brian isn’t particularly thrilled with Dirty Bastard either. Its good for the style, just doesn’t knock his socks off.

So Backwoods is quite remarkable. It takes a moderate beer, and turns it into something HUGE and amazing. A huge bourbon in the nose, and some roastiness in the flavor that isn’t there in the original. It is also WAAAYY darker than the original. Maybe that’s from the charring of the barrels? Hard to tell, but if we had to guess, that would be it. But its tasty.

Nemesis is a maple bourbon barrel aged wheat wine, and is particularly interesting in that its a lot lighter in color and mouthfeel than expected.

In a blind smell-test, Brian could barely tell the difference between the two. There is a very similar bourbon aroma to them, and a serious alcohol presence, but Brian detected a slightly greater sweetness in the Backwoods.

The Backwoods is more complex, and has a weight in the center of the palate. Brian almost wants to say its vanilla, but also knows that’s not quite it. Ian thinks its a darker flavor.

Brian has a theory: Backwoods Bastard has carmel corn in it, and Nemesis doesn’t. That’s it. Only difference.

In all fairness, that’s a decent (if unique) way to describe it. The high malt profile of the Dirty Bastard, paired with the vanilla in the bourbon, seems to give an effect not totally unlike carmel corn.

The difference is carmel corn.

Backwoods Bastard: 8/10 – the benchmark by which all other bourbon aged Scotch Ales are to be judged.
Nemesis: 8/10

But here’s the kicker: value. Is Backwoods worth the $5/bottle? Oh yeah.
Is Nemesis worth $7/bottle? That gets a little tougher.

VALUE POINTS:
Backwoods Bastard: 6.5/10
Nemesis: 4/10

Doesn’t seem like it should make that big a difference, but it does.

This is looking so awesome. I was kind of wary, but now that I’ve watched these? No doubt in my mind.

Via MajorSpoilers.

EDIT: NPH IS IN THIS TOO?!

(The girlfriend and I had this on Friday night, but I’ve been away from the internet, and only just not getting around to posting it.)

I like Goose Island. On the whole, they make good beer in a variety of styles, and their regular offerings are great examples of what a brewery of their size and stature should be doing. They also make some more interesting limited brews.

Bourbon County Stout? Awesome.

Pere Jacques? Amazing.

And Sofie? They’re staying consistent here: also fantastic.

This is a Belgian style ale that pours a paler color than the golden color that it ends up once fully decanted. It also has a serious sticky head.

The initial aroma is good, funky and Belgian. Citrus, and plenty of candy sugar here, too.

What is interesting is that there’s something familiar but unexpected right there with the orange flavor. Then it hit me, “Didn’t they age this in Cabernet barrels?”

No, not exactly. My memory was telling me so, but in actuality, they blended it 80% straight, and 20% “aged in wine barrels with orange peel”, as the bottle kindly reminded me.

I suppose that given that, I would have expected a bit darker color, maybe a hint of red? But there’s none of that. Just a hint of the flavor in there with the citrus. So there you go.

This is a great, easy to drink Belgian. At $8/bomber, I won’t buy it a ton, but I will be revisiting this. Probably from my cellar, at some point in the future.

8/10

Blogger/writer Val D’Orazio is giving away her book Memoirs Of An Occasional Superheroine for free.

I can’t believe that the only review I’ve ever given of it was this:

“Val also wrote a great book, Memoirs of an Occasional Superheroine, which you can buy as an ebook from her website. I need to get a proper review of it written up, but I will say that its a worthwhile read if you want an insider’s view of the comics industry, and some of the less-nice things that happen to good people sometimes.”

Wow. I must say that I regret not reviewing it sooner. It really is a great read, and if you check it out while its free, maybe go and click the “donate” link on Val’s site and send a little thank-you her way.

Val used to work for DC. She probably had some great times there, but without a doubt she experienced some really dark ones. I don’t feel like I can adequately describe or do justice to everything she experienced and described in her book, but let’s just say that she’s been handed a lot of shit in her life, and after everything, she’s managed to come through it all with a pretty healthy outlook.

Anyway, her blog and this book have secured her in my mind as a writer and person that I like and respect, and her book is worth your time.

She also has some books coming up with Marvel that I’m excited for: