Did You Save Room For Dessert?

Welcome back for another dose of BrewSounds! I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving this year. I know I had a great one. 

Now that Turkeyday is out of the way we can start to think about Hanukkah, National Pearl Harbor Rememberance Day, Winter officially beginning, Christmas, Boxing Day(for our friends to the north), Kwanzaa and The New Year. That's a lot of opportunities to have some great meals and finish them with a great dessert. Some like ice cream or pie or cake or some combination of the three.

And some like Crème Brûlée.

Brewery:
Southern Tier Brewing Company
Lakewood, New York
www.southerntierbrewing.com


Name/Style:
Crème Brûlée Imperial Milk Stout/Milk Stout/Imperial Stout


ABV(alcohol by volume):
9.6% 

Milk Stouts are delicious, but not for everyone. They don't actually have milk in them, but during the brewing process extra unfermentable sugars are added, like lactose, to give the Stout its creamy mouth-feel and sweet taste. So watch out if you are lactose intolerant or have a milk allergy. This beer would ruin your night.

For the rest of us Milk Stouts are a creamy, sweet, tasty alternative to the dry Irish/English Stout or the sometimes brutal and bitter Russian/American Imperial or American Double Stout. 

 To start, Crème Brûlée is one of the most aromatic brews I have ever encountered. As soon as the cap is off the whole room fills with the smell of rich vanilla. Once poured into my goblet the vanilla makes room for malt and the heavy presence of alcohol. This stuff smells amazing and like a headache waiting to happen at the same time.

The bottle recommends serving at 42 °F which is much colder than what I or most anyone would recommend serving a Stout, but I will oblige. 

At it's coldest Crème Brûlée tastes of strong vanilla bean with caramel malt, but an overpowering amount of alcohol and a bitterness that doesn't seem to fit in. I don't know why anyone, especially the brewery, would recommend serving this so chilled. I have noticed that all Southern Tier brews in bombers have that recommendation. As it warms Crème Brûlée goes from an unpleasant mess to a much more pleasing drink. The alcohol slips back considerably. The vanilla, bordering on disgusting when super chilled, is smoother and the bitterness, though still present, as it should be, is more at home because the 2-row and caramel malts make themselves more obvious. The body is middle of the road. Not thick, not thin. Overall this is one ultra flavorful and unique brew. 

By no means is this a balanced beer. Some love it. Some hate it. I am ambivalent. I enjoyed trying it. I will try it again and see if I feel the same, but I will certainly recommend you try it. Bring it to your next social gathering for the holidays and let everyone sample a little. I'm sure it will be a hit. 

Musical Pairings:

Artist:

Keelhaul

Songs:

LWM

360

Album:

II

Keelhaul are an amazingly talented and shockingly unknown band from Cleveland, Ohio. They play a mostly instrumental mix of rock-your-ass-off post-hardcore, good ol' rock, beer, math-rock, chicken, fart jokes and emotive slow jams. I am putting these two songs from their out of this world awesome second album II in the order that I felt my Crème Brûlée experience went. Shocking, jilting, out of wackness that changed to a more orderly form and finally ends in a smooth, comforting way. By the way, everything from these fellas is beer fueled. They love beer. And they put out nothing but incredible albums... Even if they do make us wait 5 years for one here and there.