Feature Beer Friday: Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast Brunch Big Blend

By Eric Ducote

Good morning everyone!  Today's Feature Beer is the perfect option for a morning beer, the Beer Geek Brunch Big Blend from Mikkeller.  The name is a mashup of the two founders' names, Mikkel Borg Bjergsø, and Kristian Klarup Keller, who started as homebrewers in Denmark before launching Mikkeller and becoming one of the pioneers of gypsy brewing.  Gypsy brewing is a concept where the brewing company doesn't own a physical brewery, but instead uses other breweries for production when space is available and also collaborating with various breweries.  

Mikkeller's first huge beer hit was Beer Geek Breakfast which was an imperial stout with coffee that has been brewed many times since, but most of their beers are one-off special releases and variants.  Since starting the Mikkeller brand has established new locations worldwide, primarily bars but some like in New York City have brewing facilities attached.  This particular beer is one that I found locally at Robert Fresh Market on Highland Rd., the Beer Geek Breakfast Brunch Big Blend.  The original Beer Geek Brunch was also an imperial oatmeal stout with even more expensive coffee, but this one is a special version that's blended from six different aging barrels.  It's a combination of beer aged in bourbon, cherry wine, cognac, tequila, brandy, and whiskey.  I know, bourbon IS whiskey, but I don't know exactly what type the second one is, but I'm guessing that it's a scotch as they released a version of Beer Geek Brunch that was labeled as "Islay Edition" and a version of Beer Geek Breakfast labeled as a "Speyside Edition" so maybe they just got the spelling of whisky associated with scotch wrong?  Enough wondering though, how's the beer? 

Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast Brunch Big Blend

As you can see, the head is massive on this one, with an excess of carbonation.  Other reviewers had the same issue, so this isn't just a localized storage problem, but a full batch problem.  Hopefully though, it's not infected and the flavors are still intact.  Past that, the beer itself is a rich dark brown as expected from this 8% stout.  The nose is rich, with all the various barrel agings coming through but none as strong as the coffee from the base beer.  The bourbon is probably the strongest barrel on the aroma, but there's also a definite fruitiness from the cognac, brandy, and wine.  On the taste there's a hint of tequila, but it's the least present barrel flavor, and again the coffee and bourbon are coming through the strongest.

All in all, a very interesting beer, but if anything there is too much going on.  It's absolutely worth a try, but be ready for some heavy carbonation and a multi-pronged assault on the taste buds.  Cheers!

Feature Beer Friday: Innis & Gunn's Bourbon Barrel Porter

By Eric Ducote

Good morning everyone on this Labor Day weekend!  I'm still at work for today, then headed out on vacation, but don't worry, there's a Wakey Whiskey coming for you all on Sunday.  Just because it's football season though and the whiskey is flowing doesn't mean the Feature Beer Friday posts have to stop.  I can multi-task pretty well it turns out. Today's #FeatureBeerFriday is coming to us from Innis & Gunn out of Scotland, and I believe it's my first international beer to be featured. Innis & Gunn features a wide lineup of craft-focused beers as well as three brewpubs throughout Scotland.  

This particular beer from Innis & Gunn is their Bourbon Barrel Porter.  It comes in 4-packs of 12 ounce bottles, which I found recently at my local Rouse's store but should be in other stores around town with a good craft and international selection.  It's 7.4% with an undisclosed IBU, but I wouldn't expect too much hop pressence from a porter to begin with and even less after some barrel aging.  

Innis & Gunn's Bourbon Barrel Porter with a cameo from The Adorable Bentley.

The beer pours exactly how I would expect, a deep brown color with a finger or so of off-white head.  The aroma is sweet, with notes of toffee and chocolate, and just a hint of bourbon and the familiar vanilla notes.  The taste is incredibly smooth, layers of flavor including toffee, vanilla, dark chocolate, and bourbon, but none particularly stand out and dominate, giving it the complexity they claim, but maybe without a crazy amount of richness.  It's actually not a bad thing at all as too heavy in one facet or another could throw this well balanced beer completely out of whack.  

I know the USA tends to be thought of (with good reason) as the world leader when it comes to craft beer, but this offering out of Scotland shows that we aren't the only country putting out a quality product.  Cheers, enjoy your holiday weekend, and Geaux Tigers! 

Feature Beer Friday: Fremont Brewing's Bourbon Barrel-Aged Dark Star Imperial Oatmeal Stout

by Eric Ducote

Hello everybody, and welcome to the first Bite and Booze edition of Feature Beer Friday!  This is a reprisal of a segment I used to write (nearly) weekly for my old beer blog, BR Beer Scene.  Basically every Friday I'll be featuring a new beer with some background information, a review, and if I'm sharing it, what my friends think about the beer.  I used to score each one based on a 100-point scale focusing on 4 critical aspects, but this time around I think it'll just be a general review.  There is never a shortage of beer laying around the Bite and Booze HQ, so look for an eclectic mix of beers both locally and from around the world.

Today's choice is one from the Bite and Booze cellar, the 2015 Coffee Edition release of their Bourbon Barrel-Aged Dark Star Imperial Oatmeal Stout from Fremont Brewing out of Seattle, Washington. I recently hosted a baby shower (good times ahead!) over at the Bite and Booze HQ, and Jay was more than willing to break this one out for everyone to try! If you think there's a lot going on in that lengthy beer name, you're absolutely right. This stout features layers upon layers of flavor.  The base beer is their Dark Star Imperial Oatmeal Stout, which is then aged for up to 18 months in bourbon barrels, before being blended with barrels of different ages and bottled with coffee added.  Fremont Brewing releases this specialty once a year around the middle of October.

First thoughts on the appearance is that there is minimal head, but that's not really surprising for a 2+ year aged beer that clocks in at 14% alcohol.  As long as it's not flat it should still be good to drink, and this one was perfectly carbonated for an aged imperial stout.

The nose on this one is crazy complex, with roasted chocolate notes coming through from the base beer, coffee present but not as strong and the bourbon aging dominates giving a bright oak and vanilla overtone to the richly dark base.  If I was still keeping score this would earn a nearly perfect mark for the aroma.

The taste is more of the same, just a well layered complex imperial stout where all the flavors play well but also compliment each other.  The bourbon barrel aging is still the star of the show, but the coffee and dark malts support it extremely well.  A bourbon barrel aged beer without a strong and flavorful base can start to taste too much like whiskey without body, and this beer's base more than supports the bourbon flavors imparted upon it.  It finishes smooth, the 14% abv is well concealed by the stronger flavors, maybe too well as this is an easy sipper!

Fortunately I had a few friends to share this beer with, or the strong abv and amazing flavors would have combined to sneak up on me.  If you are ever up in Seattle or see some Fremont Brewing beers on the shelf elsewhere, give them a try.  And if you see some of their Dark Star series, bring me one!  Cheers!

Beers with Chuck: Firestone Walker Stickee Monkee Barrel Aged Quad 2015

by Chuck P

Back in the summer of 2015 I made a trip up to Portland, Oregon on a guys trip with Jay and a few of our friends. Portland is a destination spot for craft beer lovers with a plethora of local and regional craft breweries spread throughout the city. One of my goals for this trip was getting my hands on some local beers to take back home as well as any other West Coast brews that are unavailable here in Louisiana. Luckily, I was able to find some brews from Firestone Walker out of California and had to bring this particular brew back with me: The Stickee Monkee Barrel Aged Quad.

A Quad or Quadrupel is a Belgian style ale whose ABV normally runs between 10-13%. It’s a full bodied beer with a rich malt backbone. Normally I’m not drawn to this style but after having a taste at a local pub I was hooked.

Unfortunately Jay’s brother Eric had bought the last bottle in the cooler, but my disappointment was short lived as the bartender informed me he had a bottle in the back he could sell me but it wasn’t cold. This was perfect because that meant I could take it home and enjoy it back home. Success!

Fast forward to Thanksgiving 2017. I was about to head to a Friendsgiving that my buddy Damon was hosting and I was trying to decide what beverages to bring. After searching through my cellar I spotted the Firestone Walker box hiding behind a few Bourbon County bottles. With two years of aging on it, I decided to open the bottle up and see how she was doing.

Pouring it into a glass the beer was a deep mahogany color with a nice foamy head that dissipated quickly. While pouring, the booziness made itself known in a big way. I smelled it immediately which is just the way I like it.

Hiding behind the booziness you get scents of oak, coconut, vanilla and toasted brown sugar.

Flavor wise, the booze is right up front but very smooth. Other flavors that I picked up were caramel, fig, dates and some cocoa along with the vanilla and brown sugar I got from the nose. The long, warm boozy finish was absolutely perfect and had me reaching for another taste.

The few people I shared this with at the party really enjoyed it and were sad to see it go so quickly. Hopefully I’ll be able to get my hands on another bottle again.