The Pour:  It poured considerably more cloudy than I had expected. It had a pretty dense, foamy head that stuck around through almost the whole glass.  It also left a fair amount of lacing on the side of the glass.

The smell:  A little sweet, a little astringent.  A bit of citrus hops, and a fair amount of grassy nose.

The Taste:  I was surprised.  It’s a little bitter, but not too much.  It’s tasty.  The one place I think this beer was perfect was in the mouthfeel.  It’s really nicely thin.  The sweetness is not over the top, especially when compared to the nose.  Not exactly perfect in my opinion, but not bad.  A little less quality than I’d expect from this price ($7.99)

7/10

-brian!

Wait… What?!

I re-read.   Milford’s Best Beer Selection huh?…  I’ll show them.  I casually stroll in, expecting a vast array of Budweiser and Miller products.  Much to my surprise and delight, the first thing I see is a stack of cases of Founder’s Double Trouble, and Bell’s Hopslam.  WHAT??!?!?!?!  I FOUND HEAVEN.  Well, I wasn’t going to allow myself to be swayed by a stack of cases of good beer.  I meandered over to their beer cooler, where they even offer mix ‘n’ match 6 packs, as well as a solid selection of deucers and 750′s.    Wow.  What a surprise.  I’ve found a new favorite place to purchase alcohol in Milford.

But to the point.

I purchased Insanely Bad Elf.  I figured, recently I reviewed  Criminally Bad Elf with some favor.  Plus, it’s a whopping 11.2% alcohol by volume.   As you can see, it pours a copper color, and as I so elegantly cut out (my photography skills suck!) the head was once again lacking.  Granted with 11.2% ABV, you can’t expect much.  What you can, and should expect however, is sweetness.  In more ways than one.

The nose is sweet, and boozy.

Strangely, so is the taste.  Yeah, not that strange.   Sorry.  The interesting thing about the taste, however, is that there are some fruity notes.  Not like a belgian though, with the sweet and funky esters giving banana and clove flavors.  No.   This is almost like apples, or plums.  Something savory.

I have to admit, I really want to love this beer, and this series, but they’re not blowing me away.  In fact, it’s almost a little stale tasting and smelling.  There’s nothing mind blowing, or even bending about this beer.  It’s solid, but not bringing anything great to the table.

7.0

-brian!

I must admit, I fucked this one up.  I was so excited that the moment I walked in the door from purchasing it, I opened it.  Which means that the yeast (it’s belgian afterall, of course they bottle conditioned it) are nicely suspended all through the beer.  My impression of everything will thus be based on suspended yeast.  balls.

So for me, this beer poured a coppery color, though opaque because of the suspended yeast.  It smells estery and sweet, like if you were to put orange juice and banana bread in a blender and whip it up real good.  There is also a hint of alcohol, as there damn well should be at 11.5% by volume.

As for the taste, it depends on the mouthful.  A big swig will get you alcohol, a complex array of malts and esters.  However, with a small sip, it’s almost like black licorice.  Really an interesting character.  The longer it’s sat at room temp, or given an opportunity to warm to the ambient temp, as I’m sitting outside, some of the flavors really open up in a way I wasn’t expecting.

As for the quality of this beer?  Well… for 5 dollars a 12 oz bottle, it’s really a bit on the steep side.  And I know more than a few beers at that price that top this.  However, it is interesting, and I’m glad I purchased it this once.

overall, 6/10.  5 bones is steep for above average.

Brian says if this beer was a chord, it would be a Cmaj7. Tuned down a half step. So a Bmaj7. I guess.

There is an aroma of dark, roasted barley right away, and I detect the rye right away, but I’m a rye junky. Rye beer, rye bread, rye whiskey…

Brian smells a bit of coffee, which is probably from the chocolate rye malt that’s all over it. Its pleasant, and a very easy sip.

Its also worth noting that this beer poured with almost no head, and what little there was disappeared immediately.

Brian loves the way it coats your tounge, like a good stout should. He thinks the most impressive part of it is its utilization of a rye malt in a dark beer. He’s not in love with this beer. It could be a little stouter. And he’s not so big on the aftertaste. It kind of tastes like he just smoked a whole bunch of cigarettes.

I, on the other hand, am really impressed with it. It has a wonderful grainy-ness to it that I love. The malt is roasty, and has some sweetness in there too, but mostly roast and rye. Which I love.

We both rate this a

7/10

This is a beer in a series of beers that Stone as put out called the Vertical Epic series. Now, I haven’t had all of them, but I hear the ’07 wasn’t very good. The ’08 was amazing, however.

This year’s edition is almost a smoked porter, but made with a belgian yeast, and tangerine zest.

While you can’t find it in Michigan right now (maybe not at all this year), Brian’s buddy Drew brought some up from a trip to Ohio, and the three of us tried it last month.

Its kind of Belgian in the nose, like the XMas ale Brian and I brewed a few years back. There’s also a little bit of an estery sweetness in the flavor, but that’s especially apparent in the nose. Again, like a beer Brian and I made before – Ugly Ale (an ale made with Ugli Fruit).

Its mega-dark in color, which is weird when paired with the aroma; a beer so heavy w Chocolate malt, but with a belgian yeast nose? Certainly odd. There is definately a fruity character that’s unusual in a dark beer, and you can taste the tangerine peel, even seeing a little orange tint in the head.

It goes straight down for such a heavy beer. Nice and smooth. You get both the sweet and the bitter in this ale. Is it perfect? No. Is it good? Yeah. Worth trying? Definately.

6/10

First off – it has one of the coolest bottles ever. I love painted on labels, and this one is gorgeous. Check it out:

First off, HOLY WOAH it pours with a ton of head. Like, a lot. Check this picture:

It has a beautiful golden color, and a nice, sweet, almost floral aroma. Not floral like hops, but its hard to put a finger on it.

And tasting it, it is very sweet. More than you expect from a tripel usually. Definitely not as dry as some. Its still very good, though.

You really notice the Belgian Candy Sugar in it – almost like you’re eating rock candy. Not that pure sugary sweet, but that kind of flavor, tempered by the malt.

What is remarkable to me is that there’s almost no clove or banana like you often expect from a Belgian. Not that this is a bad thing, but definitely different.

Jo thinks its unlike your traditional Belgian, at least from what she’s drank. Its a lot sweeter, and she doesn’t know if she likes that as much, but she would still recommend it.

(Its worth noting that her favorite Tripels include Goose Island’s Matilda, and Dragonmead’s Final Absolution.)

I, personally, am really glad to find another brewery I like from Indiana. Up until now my positive experiences with beer from the state I was born in has been limited to Three Floyds.

Brugge, you have won us over, and we will be planning on trying more. Hopefully very soon. Jo mentions that they have a Belgian White – called White – and a stout called Black. Expect to hear about them soon.

7/10

The beer pours a nice deep brown/black, and has a fair tan head. It smells faintly of booze and complex malt sweetness. The taste on the otherhand is of heavily roasted malt. We’re looking at chocolate malt, and chocolate rye. Very very dark, and very bitter. A little goes a hell of a long way. Its got a great bitter character, but it lacks that oomph which would give it some true reknown. It really could use some vanilla, or even some lactose. It needs some sweetness! While this has some very dark chocolate characteristics, I was hoping for more. Amanda (my wife) and I agree, its good, but it could be a lot better with some sweetness.

7/10
-brian

7/10

-brian!

Did I mention that its BLACK?

There’s no foolin’, Dark Horse (Marshall, Michigan) named this beer properly. Reserve Special Black Bier Ale.

Its interesting in that they don’t actually consider it a stout. It could probably pass as one, though. Its dark, it has a pretty weighty mouthfeel. There’s a real roasty flavor to this beer, and a bitter chocolate malt flavor that hits you in the palate and doesn’t let up.

That said, after sipping on it for a while, you can tell that it doesn’t quite fit into the typical stout mold, and surely you know that everyone here at BeerandComics is okay with that.

Maybe its that it lacks the maltiness that usually comes with a stout, or that what sweetness there is from the malt is almost totally obscured by the dark, roasty flavors.

Maybe they just didn’t want to call it a stout. Who knows?

Either way, its really good for a cold day, and hey, 65º and rainy is cold for July, okay?

7/10

So I decided to give it a try the other night.

One of the first things I’ve noticed is that (as you might guess a stout would be) its really dark. The photos don’t do it justice, as there is more of a hint of brown around the edges, and its not all just black as night, but it really is very dark.

It pours with only a tiny bit of head, which is a nice, chocolaty color.

There is a distinctly sweet aroma to it, and just a hint of the hops behind it. What I really like about it is that the sweetness carries into the flavor as well.

The mouthfeel isn’t as heavy as you might expect from a stout, especially one this dark, but I find that to be a pleasant thing. The flavor is pleasant, and you can just taste a hint of the alcohol – its only 5.7%.

What I really like is the way the sweetness plays with the nuttiness – especially in the aftertaste.

I got this beer at under $3.50, which is a steal in my book. For a beer of this caliber, as well-balanced and pleasant as this one, I will not turn it away. Seek it out – its not the biggest, baddest stout you’ll ever have, but it certainly is one of the nicest, easiest to drink out there.

7/10