Empyrean Ales Carpe Brewem: Old Fashioned Bourbon Barrel Aged Stout

Stout brewed with lactose then aged in bourbon barrels with orange peel and cherry flavor - 6-7% ABV

I picked up this little beauty as part of Empyrean's variety 12-pack (on sale!). I have a soft spot for bourbon barrel-aged brews, so I was excited to try this stout. In a lot of ways it doesn't conform to expectations that one might have of a stout, it isn't super dark, like many stouts are; nor is it heavy as you would assume a stout to be; most barrel-aged brews tend to be higher in ABV, this one is less than 7%, which makes it eminently drinkable. I suspect that the bourbon barrel may have used in previous batches, as the bourbon-oak character is somewhat subdued, but gives a pleasantly warm tinge to the brew. There's chocolate, coffee and some caramel as well. The cherry flavoring adds a little zip to the mix and the orange peel rounds it all out. Overall a pretty good drink...even if it is "dark"...

Dundee Porter

One learns to expect certain things from a porter; one of those things is a dark, light-resistant hue. Dundee's porter is one of the lightest in color of any porter than I can recall. It's more along the lines of an altbier, or a dunkelwiezen, or even a red ale. But the aroma and taste that one would expect from a porter is present and accounted for. There's a mixture of coffee and vanilla that predominates, as well as a bit of chocolate and hazelnut. And, if I'm not imagining it, a ghost of a peanut butter taste as well. Overall a pretty fair porter that I would try again if the opportunity presented itself.

Dundee Pilsner

Picked these up in a variety pack the other day, following is a review from 2011. 

Another fine brew from the summer craft pack, new this year. The first thing I noticed was the hard-to-describe taste most often associated with Belgian Wits or farmhouse Ales. From there, the hops clamored for attention, but didn't get all obnoxious on me. A solid lager and an appropriate summer brew.

And a few added remarks:
There's a little mango and apricot, but very, very subtle. I just found out that Dundee is owned by Genessee, an upper New York brewery. This is a great representation of the classic pilsner style. 

Dundee IPA

Pours a nice orangey color, medium thick head. The hops weren't evident at first, but came out more as I progressed farther down the glass, although not as prominent as one would expect from an IPA. Not bad, but I wouldn't drive out of my way for a 6 pack.

Dundee English-Style Ale

Pours a light orange color with a healthy white head. Not sure what they would be going for with an English-style ale, but whatever their goal, what they achieved was a medium-hoppy ale, with some subtle aromas evocative of ripe apples and honey. A little bit of pear as it warmed up. A little sweeter than I normally like, but not too much. As Bubbles would say: "Deeeecent"

Beer Styles: The Classic Imports

Early in my beer drinking career there were far fewer choices than there are now, and most of these choices were American pale lagers. Budweiser and its higher status cousin, Michelob, Miller and local varieties like Schmidt's and Schaeffer's. However, for the adventurous among us, there were the imports.

During the sixties the notion that European-brewed beer was superior to American beer took hold. Returning servicemen who had been stationed in Germany sang the praises of German beer in particular and imported lagers began to develop a following in the United States. The imported beers that I recall from my youth are Heineken, Becks, Lowenbrau and Guinness. Back then, I really didn't know squat about beer, and drank imports because they made me seem more knowledgeable and sophisticated than I actually was.

Guinness was possibly the only stout that I encountered before the craft beet explosion of the last twenty years. A lot of people that I knew drank Guinness on St. Patrick's Day, but I didn't see a lot of consumption during the rest of the year, although it was considered by many to be one of the "good" beers. A persistent misconception about Guinness is that it is stronger than "regular" beers, which is not true. The alcohol content is in the same general range as an American pale lager and in my opinion it's not appreciably heavier than run-of-the-mill lagers. Their is a noticeably higher hop content and a roasted malt character that differentiate it from pale lagers. Guinness is what most people are referring to when they think of "dark beer", whether they like it or not!

Heineken, Becks, and Lowenbrau were all pale lagers, although they all made dark versions; Heineken was from Holland and the others were from Germany. I remember thinking, when drinking a Heineken, that there as something wrong with it. Part of it was that the European beers were hoppier and had more flavor than an American beer, but part of it was that the beer had skunked. The main reason that a beer can go bad is the influence of ultraviolet light which will cause the beer to take on a "skunky" aroma and taste. Since these beers were packaged in clear glass bottles there was ample opportunity for UV contamination, especially since they did not sell as fast as cheaper-priced American beers. For years I thought that this was just how German and Dutch beers tasted and eventually moved away from them. However, now Heineken can be purchased in cans - I notice that the canned version tastes a lot better than the glass version.

Other imports that have gained in popularity, but that I did not see much in my younger days are Fosters, Corona and Negra Modelo. Fosters is Australian in origin and comes in their signature 24 oz. cans. Corona and Negra Modelo are Mexican brews.

These days you can get imports from all over the world. Specialty beer stores carry beers from the U.K., Russia and Japan as well as Germany and Belgium. But back in my younger days, there wewre few to choose from.