Miller Fortune

Got a free bottle of Miller Fortune today. Miller-Coors is marketing this as a beer for bourbon drinkers, and suggests that you drink it out of a "rocks" glass. Okay. I often drink my high-end beers, including those that were aged in bourbon oak barrels, from just such a glass, as well as tulip glasses and brandy snifters. Often the different glassware brings out the taste better than a regular pint glass. I'm drinking some now from a Jack Daniels "rocks" glass and I'm just not feeling it. It does have an amber hue suggestive of bourbon and not much of a head, which you wouldn't expect from bourbon, but there really isn't any taste of bourbon that I can detect. So, for the second half of the bottle I'm switching to a Sam Adams perfect pint glass. Despite the misleading marketing, it's not a half bad beer, just not what they say it is. There's some malty sweetness to it, hinting at honey, with very little hoppiness. On the back side there's a little bit of vanilla...and I've got a search party out looking for the bourbon flavor.

Suede Imperial Porter

This is a collaboration among three brewers: Stone, the new kid on the Nebraska block, 10 Barrel, and Blue Jacket (never heard of the other two)

It pours a dark brown, with some light peaking through and a small, one-finger head. Supposedly brewed with honey and jasmine, although I'm not catching either flavor distinctly, although it is really sweet for a porter. Very smooth, with evident chocolate and coffee notes and more carbonation than I expected.

I would never have thought to put flowers (calendula is a flower btw) in a porter, but it works pretty well. Great winter brew, especially since Spring is somewhat delayed again this year!

Wild Plum Farmhouse Ale from Tallgrass

Tallgrass from Manhattan Kansas has consistently produced some fine beers, usually encased in the ground-breaking (for craft beers) 16 oz. cans. Wild Plum is a farmhouse, or saison, similar in style to a Belgian wit. It pours an apricot hued gold, with a six finger snowy-white head. The plum barely shows up - I wouldn't even know it as there if it didn't say so on the label. The style is closer to a Belgian sour ale than a typical farmhouse, so if you don't like the sours, stay away! I'm a big fan of them, for example some of Goose Island's beers, and would definitely sample Wild Plum again.

Millstream Back Road Stout

I've encountered a couple of pretty good beers from Millstream this past year, starting with Great Pumpkin Imperial Pumpkin Stout that I tried at Jake's last October, and the Schokolade Bock which I discovered around Thanksgiving. I'll throw my hat in the ring for Back Road Stout as well. Dark brown-black with a thick beige head, there was a fairly thick mouthfeel, as one would expect from an oatmeal stout. There was an immediate bite from the hops, balanced by the sweet maltiness. Lots of chocolate and coffee at the top, with some surprising black cherry and brown sugar as it warmed up. Great example of an oatmeal stout.