By Iron Chef Leftovers
Now for part 2 of the Vintage beer tasting. When last we left our heroes they had just made it through 4 vintage Belgian beers…
While Belgian beers are interesting and tend to age well, the really good stuff for aging are dark beers. Darker beers tend to cover a wider range of the taste spectrum and lend themselves to the addition of additive flavors (spices, herbs, oak aging) that the Belgians do not. So without further delay, I give you the darks:
2007 Anchor Christmas Ale
This beer is best described as a liquid Christmas tree almost every year it is brewed and the 4+ years of aging on this beer were no exception. Pouring up dark and frothy, with lots of malt on the nose and hints of evergreen. The initial taste yielded notes of sweet cinnamon and nutmeg with more evergreen fragrance rather than taste. It was like having a spice cookie sitting next to the Christmas tree around the holidays. The finish was long with some resin and evergreen but mostly just a fading spice character that was pleasant. A sweet and spicy beer with Christmas tree notes that got better with age as it tamed the evergreen from being the predominant player to being a supporting cast member. A great beer on a chilly winter day.
4 Tannenbaums out of 5.
2009 Alaskan Baltic Porter
I originally bought 6 bottles of this beer when it was released, it was drinking extremely well when it was young and I drank 4 of the 6 bottles. Sadly, this particular Baltic porter recipe was retired with the 2009 batch.
An inky black pour with notes of roasted malt, vanilla and oak on the nose. The palate provided a wonderful booziness from the vanilla and a restrained sweetness from the brown sugar with a hint of cherry teasing your palate, making you wonder if it is really there. The finish yields slight hints of oak and vanilla, fading quickly into a milk chocolate covered cherry that lingers for a while. This was probably the only beer we tasted where the taste profile did not change as the beer warmed. Personally, I thought this was the best beer of the group, one of the 10 best beers I have ever had, and I am really sad that I don’t have anymore. This is one that I would fly to Juneau for and beg and plead with the brewer to either make again or tell me where they are hiding their stash.
5 Cossacks out of 5 (I would have given this beer a 6 out of 5 if my rating score allowed)
!!!!! ALERT!!!!!– I just checked the Alaskan Beer website and they are bringing the recipe back in September 2012. Seriously, when this comes out, buy a case of it and lay at least 6 bottles down.
2007 Dogfish Head World Wide Stout
The highest alcohol beer in the tasting, coming in at a whopping 20% on the 2007 vintage. This beer pours like a black hole – no light will escape its inky depths. Slight hints of oak on the nose with plenty of malt and booziness, smells more like a subtile malt whiskey than a beer. Surprisingly sweet on the palate with chocolate and brandy notes on the front fading into milk chocolate sweetness on the long finish, providing a slight alcohol burn, just to remind you this beer has some legs to it. The brewer recommends serving at 50-55 degrees, and the chocolate and brandy notes are joined with more pronounced vanilla flavors as the beer warms. I really think this beer could go for another 5 years easily and still be great. There are at least 2 more bottles of this vintage in the Iron Chef cellar with bottles from 2008-2012. One of these days there will be a vertical tasting on the WW Stout, until then…
4 Squalidae out of 5
FlatbreadGarden 