​Some targets for seasonal beer hunters

By Chris Larson

Cjlarson75@gmail.com

It’s BEER hunting time! This week I will be highlighting seasonal porters and stouts that are either new to the market or come around once a year. A few are quite readily available to experience over and over again, while others may be less than easy to find but worth the hunt, for those looking for unique brews that are so special they are coveted as trophy beers by the most serious hunters.

Surly Darkness is the annual Russian Imperial Stout offering by Surly Brewing company and its release has become an enormous event with food and live music and hundreds of beer hunters camping outside the brewery to be the first to purchase a limit of six bombers. Ready to drink right now, while still cellaring quite well for several years, this year’s release starts with a burst of sweetness that almost makes you think it has already been whiskey barrel aged. Chocolate and toffee are rounded out with notes of coffee and hints of raisins and cherries. This beer is exceptionally well balanced and I would highly recommend fans of stouts seek this out before all the taps in town are drained, because the retail stores are already sold out.

Drekker has tapped their Iron Milk Maiden, a chocolate milk stout, and this year will also be releasing bombers to select liquor stores in the Fargo market. The artwork was done by Punchgut and is striking in a way that is sure to make these bottles collectible items for fans of Punchgut and/or Drekker alike. Pouring a very dark black with a beautifully rich, tan head, this chocolate milk stout has a wonderful blend of coffee and dark chocolate with just the right amount of lactose added to make it smooth and creamy without being overly sweet. Other than the limited release of bombers, this beer should be fairly easy to find on tap at your favorite watering hole.

Fargo Brewing Company’s annual winter release is their Roustabout Oatmeal Milk Stout, and it will once again be available on tap throughout the region, as well as in 6-pack cans wherever Fargo Brewing 6 packs are sold. Roasted oats and nuts come through the chocolate and coffee. It’s slightly bitter for a milk stout but full of character and easy drinking, with a smooth finish.

New to our market this year, Oskar Blues brings us their highly acclaimed Death By Coconut, an English porter in 4-pack 12oz cans and on draft. With a strong aroma of chocolate and coconut with hints of roasted coffee, it delivers much the same on the mouth, if not more balanced and creamy. Natural coconut and dark chocolate flavors are sweetened by caramel malt sugars to deliver a Mounds bar in a glass that brings you back for more and more until it is gone way too fast. Limited release, but a fair amount was dropped on the local market so you should be able to easily score a 4 pack of this at a local liquor store.

Boulevard Smokestack Series: Rye on Rye X (Sazerac cocktail) is one of the most ambitious and interesting beers I have had in quite some time. Boulevard attempts to impart the flavors and aromas of the classic Sazerac cocktail into a rye ale by brewing with cardamom and lemon before aging in a Templeton rye barrel. Dark and sinister, this drinks almost like a stout. The nose is packed full of spicy rye whiskey notes with slight aromas of licorice, lemon, and cardamom spice when you really bury your nose in a snifter. Just like the nose, the taste is huge and complex. The anise, lemon, cardamom and other spices dance around big barrel-notes of hearty rye whiskey and hints of oaky vanilla and cherry. Loaded with alcohol at 11.8% which helps this beer drink more like a cocktail you would sip on and discover new flavors with each visit. This one was so interesting and complex I am itching to grab another bottle to cellar for a year and see how it develops. Limited release but you should find a bottle at stores with larger selections.

Finally, while writing this piece, I began to anticipate this year’s Black Friday release of Goose Island’s Bourbon County Stout, and just had to dip into the cellar and crack one open. This barrel-aged imperial stout constantly gets 99 or 100 point ratings from fans and critics alike but was made with cellaring in mind. I cracked a bottle last year right when I purchased it and found it ridiculously bready and boozy but after almost a year of cellar age, it delivers one of the most balanced barrel aged stouts ever to touch my lips.

Full of oaky goodness(vanilla, toasted caramel, dark fruit) without overwhelming the strong coffee and chocolate flavors, the booze is hidden well in this nearly 14% abv monster. Look for it at all major retailers when they open on Black Friday.

It’s the only reason I would ever recommend anyone camp out in a parking lot at a retail store the day after Thanksgiving.