We're Thankful for Beer

The pre-Thanksgiving meet-up was our second attempt at tasting all that is Stout (or rare, or expensive, or strong) and delicious.  These beers contain hints of oak, bourbon, vanilla, mocha, chocolate, coffee, oatmeal, peppers, cocoa, spices, and even spaghetti.
Yep - that includes a breakfast, a cocktail, an entree, a beverage, a dessert, and a wooden bench to sit on.

Tastings:
Wicked Weed Dark Arts Wild Imperial Stout [98]
Alchemist Heady Topper [100]
Founders KBS (Kentucky Breakfast Stout) [100]
Tallgrass Vanilla Bean Buffalo Sweat [88]
Dogfish Head World Wide Stout [94]
Southern Tier Choklat [95]
Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout [95]
Samuel Adams Thirteenth Hour Stout [84]
Stone Xocoveza Mocha Stout [97]
Prairie Artsian Ales/Brewfist Spaghetti Western [89]
Oskar Blues Ten FIDY [98]
Founders Breakfast Stout [100]
(yeah, that was twelve but it's rude to count)

Links:
http://www.wickedweedbrewing.com/beer/our-beers/#barrel-aged-beers
http://alchemistbeer.com
http://foundersbrewing.com/our-beer/kbs
http://www.tallgrassbeer.com/beers/vanilla-bean
http://www.dogfish.com/brews-spirits/the-brews/occassional-rarities/world-wide-stout.htm
http://www.stbcbeer.com/black-water/choklat
http://greatdivide.com/beer/seasonal/yeti-clan/yeti-clan-oct-dec/oak-aged-yeti-imperial-stout
https://www.samueladams.com/craft-beers/thirteenth-hour
http://www.stonebrewing.com/collab/xocoveza
http://www.brewfist.com/index/en/birra/show/spaghetti-western.html
http://prairieales.com/beers
http://brew.oskarblues.com/ob-beers/seasonals/ten-fidy
http://foundersbrewing.com/our-beer/breakfast-stout

Stats for the Day:
12 beers tasted
10.22 average ABV
10 participants
212.3 ounces of beer
2.1 fl. oz. of alcohol ea.

Clean out the Fridge

Management is at an off-site meeting = Good reason to have a Beer Club meeting

Tastings:
Lagunitas Sucks (Brown Shugga Substitute Ale) [97]
Other Various Odds & Ends

Links:
http://lagunitas.com/beers/sucks

To Those Who are Stout

We celebrated Veterans' Day by tasting a few strong, able-bodied stouts.  From Buffalo to Dragon, and from Milk to Bourbon, we got our Merkin Sweaty with this batch of fine stout beers.

Tastings:
4 Hands Chocolate Milk Stout [89]
Tallgrass Buffalo Sweat Oatmeal Cream Stout [87]
New Holland Dragon's Milk Bourbon Barrel Stout [90]
Firestone Walker Velvet Merkin 2013 Bourbon Barrel Oatmeal Stout [96]


Links:
http://4handsbrewery.com/our-beers
http://www.tallgrassbeer.com/beers/buffalo-sweat
http://newhollandbrew.com/our-beer/dragons-milk
http://www.firestonebeer.com/beers/products/velvet-merkin

Style of the Day
Stout: Stout is a dark beer made using roasted malt or roasted barley, hops, water and yeast. Stouts were traditionally the generic term for the strongest or stoutest porters, typically 7% or 8%, produced by a brewery.

Milk / Sweet Stouts are basically stouts that have a larger amount of residual dextrins and unfermented sugars that give the brew more body and a sweetness that counters the roasted character. Milk Stouts are very similar to Sweet Stouts, but brewers add unfermentable sugars, usually lactose, to the brew kettle to add body and some sweetness.

Oatmeal Stouts are generally medium to full bodied stouts that have an unreal smoothness to them from the addition of oats to the mash. The oats not only add a lot of smoothness to the mouth feel but give a touch of sweetness that is unlike any other type of stout. Both levels of roasted flavor and hop character will vary.