ESCUTCHEON ANNEALED COFFEE STOUT

 ANNEALED COFFEE STOUT, ESCUTCHEON BREWERY, WINCHESTER, VA       COFFEE STOUT   Abv   6.5     IBU  20

There are almost as many ways of including coffee in beers as there are beers that include coffee.  In the early days of coffee beers, many of the brewers we talked to were adding ground beans to the mash and essentially brewing beer and coffee at the same time.   Lately, we’ve noticed a trend towards cold-brewed coffee infusions.   The latter approach requires some calculations since the alcoholic strength of the beer can be diluted.   Escutcheon solved that problem by ramping up the abv from the start.

The brewery presents a succinct and clear description of the intent of this beer on their website:  “When steel is annealed, it is heated up and then cooled slowly to relieve locked-up stresses. Similarly, this variant of our famous stout has been heated up with a higher ABV and then slowly cold-infused with locally-roasted, ethically-sourced coffee beans from Winchester, VA’s own Hopscotch Coffee.”

Tasting notes:  The coffee is huge in the aroma, but finishes with more sweetness than I expected.  As it drinks, notes of chocolate and lactose step forward to make it a fuller and richer brew.   It was sweeter than we would have designed it, but there are many beer drinkers out there who like more sweetness than we do and they deserve to have their beers.

Food Pairings:  Breakfast.   Bacon and eggs and, if you want to really take the sweetness to another level, a good Danish on the side.   At 6.5% your breakfast pint will ensure a quick return to bed for that nap you’ve been promising yourself.   Beer Review # 0090    20170325

WE USALLY TAKE SUNDAY OFF, BUT WE’LL POST ESCUTCHEON’S CHEERLY KRIEK TOMORROW AND LET IT STAND ON MONDAY.  IT’S BOTH RARE AND VERY EXPENSIVE.

 

ESCUTCHEON BOWDITCH APA- BLUE EGG EDITION

BOWDITCH APA, ESCUTCHEON BREWERY, WINCHESTER, VA       American Pale Ale   Abv   5.3     IBU  40

                Some of the beers we feature are those that have blown us away with their depth and range of flavor.   Others make the cut because in this land of over 5,000 breweries anyone who does anything drinkable that isn’t very similar to 20 other beers within 20 miles gets a tip of the hat.   The Bowditch APA is in the latter category.  In fairness, though, I liked it a lot.  Ellie, not so much, so although our average score doesn’t put this to the top of the pack there will be plenty of drinkers like me who will find this a very enjoyable, almost-session beer.   It’s very rare these days to find a beer that is very distinctive-  maybe even approaching unique—that doesn’t involve so much acid that you need to make sure your health insurance is paid up.  Our kudos to Escutcheon for brewing a good beer that still breaks new ground.

The nearly unique touch here is the concrete “blue egg” that the brewery uses to ferment some of its beers.   It seems to be the “marvelous toy” of brewing—at least when we were at the brewery no one could tell us exactly what it was or what it did…but they all liked it.   Our sample was to limited to be definitive, but it seemed to soften the edges of the flavors, perhaps at the price of increasing some buttery diacetyl   For more about the brewery, read our “hopping around” post on Winchester breweries.

Tasting notes:  Some malt in the aroma includes a bit of biscuit and a touch of butter along with a touch of demerara-like sugar.   The sweetness and the diacetyl (buttery flavor) carry into the initial taste, but some floral notes clean it up a bit before the end.  Still, the egg seems to contain most of the declared 40 IBUs and there’s a persistent butterscotch pudding sweetness.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing in ales.  We suspect this beer could be very popular in central Pennsylvania where beers tend to be much more sweet than hoppy.

Food Pairings:  We’d lean to “contrast” rather than “complement” with these round soft sweet flavors.   The heat of chicken wings or hot Asian foods could be soothed by the softness for the same reasons that milk is the beverage of choice for those eating “on a dare” hot foods.    Beer Review # 0089    20170324

TOMORROW (REALLY):   ESCUTCHEON ANNEALED COFFEE STOUT

Winchester Beer Crawl –  Winchester Brew Works: Morgan Run Black IPA — The Beauty of Dry Hopping

Morgan Run, Winchester Brew Works, Winchester, Virginia,  Black IPA    Abv    6.5

                Ellie came up with a proposal for a black IPA almost 20 years ago, shortly before we heard that Greg Noonan was already making a very similar beer in Vermont.   She was told by more brewers than I can count that the bitterness of a dark roast added to the bitterness of hops would make a very unpleasant beer.  She claimed the floral and fruity flavors of the hops would enrich the roast and make the beer delicious.

 

She was, of course, right and the rest of us were dead wrong, but throwing a bunch of hops into dark ale doesn’t guarantee a transformative experience.   The hop blend matters and the roast has to be mild enough so that the bitterness stays under control.   Bonnie Landy, brewer at Winchester Brew Works, gets it right in Morgan Run.

Dark and creamy, with a bit of late ash, it gets as much fruit and spice from the hops as it does bitter. Chinook hops get along with the malt rather nicely.  Bonnie doubled down on the idea with a double dry hopped version that we think brought it to an even higher level.  The Amarillo hop gives more gentle citrus flavors than many of the palate smashers from the West Coast and we’ve been fond of it for years.  Here, it seems to accentuate the chocolate in the roast and contribute to a broader, really tasty, range of flavors.

Tasting notes:  The regular , if you can call it that, Morgan Run starts with a chewy dark malt that runs slightly husky in the finish where it’s soon joined by the fruit and the spice from the hops.   It stays dark and creamy and that touch of ash at the end is a welcome addition to the overall darkness.  It helps to know the Amarillo is there in the double dry hopped version, but like a hidden figure in a painting that becomes startlingly obvious once you see it, the tangerine fruitiness adds a wonderful breadth to the experience.   The foundational dark roast is unmistakable, but the chocolate notes are more vibrant the balance makes the beer undeniably moreish.

Food Pairings:  The depth and range of flavors in both versions would support a rich meat dish such as a Belgian carbonnade, but hold its own with something spicier as well.   If you want to avoid using a big sweet Belgian quad to complement a rich desert, this would provide a cleansing contrast.  Beer Review #0088    20170322

Tomorrow our Winchester Beer Tour crawls to Escutcheon Brewing for more really good beer.