We’ve been enjoying the holidays by working around the house, doing a little bit of cleaning, but mostly enjoying some of our new toys and tech. After having the Highland Kashmir IPA, and noticing the date on it was from 2/22/11, I figured I’d better check some of the other beers given to me by my sister’s friend. I grabbed this one and noticed the bottle was marked with a 7/11 date, and figured I’d better have it soon. In fact, I noticed a few beers next to each other in the beer fridge marked with old dates, so I’m going to try to knock out a few of those over the next few days.
Location: Poured into a curved pint glass from the bottle at my home in Bloomington, IL.
Numbers: 5.7% ABV, ~ 200 Calories
Appearance & Aroma: It’s black in color, but some highlights were detectable when I held it up to the light. The head fell almost immediately after pouring it, but left a thin ring of tan bubbles around the edge of the glass. The aroma is mostly a roasty-grain smell with some hints of coffee.
Taste & Feel: The body is medium and the mouthfeel is fairly smooth with a bit of crispness from the carbonation. The flavor is a sweet roastiness up front, followed by coffee and dark roasted grain flavors in the middle. It finishes with a little coffee-like bitterness which lasts for a minute or so in the aftertaste.
Food Pairing: This beer has a little bit of sweetness up front, followed by mostly roasty and coffee flavors. Therefore, I think it would be balanced out nicely with something meaty, like chili. I think the sweetness would be counteracted by the chili, and yet the roasty/coffee flavors would add another dimension to the flavor of the seasonings.
Overall Impression: I had heard many good things about this beer and was excited when my sister gave it to me. Unfortunately, this one had some age to it (looks like it was a year and half old), which likely had some impact on the flavor. I was expecting a bit more sweetness and smoothness from this beer from the lactose, but this was likely because of its age. However, it was still a pretty good beer with a good amount of roastiness. I’d really like to try this one fresh, but it was still a pretty good beer.
My Rating: 
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