I got this in a 1pt 6oz bomber. The label features a Caribou against the horizon with a setting sun. As with many "age-able" beers nowadays it has the year it was brewed on it, this one being a 2019. It even says "enjoy it now or age it for several years. Standard crimpcap, says "made in Alaska". 6.5% ABV. let's pop the top.
Nose from the bottle is a sort of peat smoke with chocolate. It is a very dark beer, almost black, but it's perfectly clear. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a good picture to illustrate that. The head is light brown to an almost beige color, it doesn't stick around very long though. Nose from the glass is even more peat smoke than it was from the bottle. You have to take a couple of pulls to get any of the chocolate and roasted malts out of it, but they clearly are there. On first sip, It's smokey and rich and creamy. It has a woody, earthy quality to it with a slightly medicinal flavor at the end. It's pretty astringent, but that's not uncommon in beers meant for aging. If given a few years that would probably go away. I don't know if that medicinal quality would go away though. I actually don't get too many other flavors outside of the smoke. The mouthfeel is pretty great, real smooth and creamy, basically no acidity. It's got a quality in the aftertaste I don't know how to describe, it's that flavor you get when you have hard water or something else that has allot of calcium in it. Actually, that might be it, probably just has allot of calcium.
Listening to a mix called "best ska music from the Balkans", it sounds exactly like you think it would and I love it.
Been stuck inside all weekend because of this Covid-19 business. It's given me the opportunity to finish some chores, which I proceeded not to do. I suppose that's not entirely true, I managed to fix my reel to reel player and listen to a few radio master tapes I acquired. two were marked "charlie tuna" and turned out to just be "simucast" reels with station calls on them. You know, those little jingles where the station would say what station you are listening to. They would time them with other tapes to play after commercials but before the next song. From a technical perspective they are fascinating, but they completely suck when you were expecting a radio show. At least my Wolfman Jack tape turned out to be that. Had a handful of awesome classic 70's songs that thousands of people would have listened to over the airways directly from this very tape, there were also a bunch of songs that frankly needed to stay in the 70's. Hopefully once this RCA to 3.5mm jack adapter shows up I'll be able to convert some of the older tapes into digital files.
In other news I have two blue budgies now. It's been a few weeks and they have finally gotten used to having me around. I can get them to eat out of my hand if I don't look at them, as soon as I look they get skiddish. I let them roam around the house when I'm here, but they can be hard as hell to get back into their cage, but once they're in they don't want to leave. They absolutely love being underneath chairs or my pool table. I suppose it's because they don't have to pay attention to what's above them and chairs have little structural bars to sit on. As I was writing this one of them finally got the courage to climb on me for the first time.
final thought's. It's a well brewed beer, but it's not for me. The smoke flavor is a bit overpowering and I wasn't exactly a fan of smoked beer in the first place. If smoked beers are your thing, you will probably like this. As for me, not wild about it. I'm not going to call it a bad beer, it clearly is not and if I had to judge it I probably would have given it pretty high rankings. But this blog is my personal opinion and It's just not for me.
Post Script: It is far better warm than it is cold, but it hasn't changed my opinion.
