STOUTS--Millstream's Back Road Stout and Cream Stout by Samuel Adams.

Holden with his fancy pose

Back Road Stout Millstream

This week on the barely legal beer tasting I am sampling two stouts. Stouts are very dark beers that are usually considered the stronger or the stoutest of porters. They have a couple different variations of the style  Dry or Irish stout, imperial stout, milk stout and oatmeal stout are a couple of the more popular versions.

Cream Stout Boston Beer Co.

The first one Holden Walton, Rory Hennessy and I tried was the Back Road Stout by Millstream Brewing Co. in Amana Iowa. The brewery opened in 1985 was the first brewery to open in Amana since 1884, and is now the oldest brewery open in the state. It produces nine different beers, of which five are offered year round.

We poured the stout and it of course is a very dark beer , a deep black color with an SRM of 48. It had a light brown head, that was slightly frothy. It smelled like a typical stout, with a strong emphasis on the chocolate malts with a slight sweet smell. It didn’t have much of a wallop at the beginning of the tasting. It had a chocolate taste to it if you let it sit in your mouth for a while and ended kind of bitter. The more you drank it the more the sweetness came through and you got less of the bitterness.  It was very creamy, which from what I read is typical of Oatmeal stouts. Overall a good beer, but almost to creamy and heavy to be able to drink a lot of it.

The next was the Cream Stout from Samuel Adams  it was also a very dark beer like the back road, but didn’t seem to be as dark and lacked the brown head.  It smelled very piney, I don’t know if this is the best way to describe this beer, but that’s what we were getting. Unlike the Back Road we couldn’t smell any chocolate. It started out with a piney taste just as we described in the smell, but ended with a chocolate taste. Ironically it didn’t seem to have as much of a creamy mouth feel even though it is called Cream Stout.  The more we drank it, the piney taste left and became sweeter.

With both of these Rory said he was imagining drinking this with something very salty. Even though me and Holden were both thinking sweet, we decided to take a little salt and follow it with some of the stout, BAD IDEA. It turned into an attack on our taste buds and left us yearning for some water.  Oh well though live and let learn. See ya next time for the barely legal beer tasting.

ME trying to ya Idk

The girls help me experience Lindeman's Lambics--Framboise and Kriek



Jenny and Nella trying the Framboise

This week I had two young females Jenny Sorenson and Nella Thomas decide they wanted to take part in the beer tasting. At their request, I purchased two bottles of beer that were fruity, and what better fruit beer than two of Lindemans Lambics.  I picked up the Framboise (raspberry) and the Kriek (sour cherry).  

Lindemans Framboise

Now first a little on the brewery.Lindemans was started out as a small brewery and farm in Vlezenbeek, Belgium. It started commercially brewing in 1811 and in 1930 they dropped the farming side of the business and began brewing the Kriek and Gueuze. They are still are family owned and produce eight different beers including the award winning Framboise.

To be a true Lambic the beer has to be brewed in the Pajottenland region of Belgium, even though some breweries have claimed to make a lambic. Lambics are open fermented acquiring their yeast from the timbers in the breweries which give the beer a sour taste fermentation process starts the lambics are put into barrels to finish fermentation. A true pure lambic is un-carbonated and un-blended but most breweries make their lambics from blends creating Gueze or the fruit varieties of lambics. Most lambics are lightly hopped sometimes using dried hops which help with preservation but take away the bittering.

We started out the tasting with the Framboise (raspberry). It poured out with very little  head and a dark redish purple color that could be described as you guessed it rasberry. It smelled very strongly of the rasberry and you could sense the sourness coming through. The sourness kind of set everyone off at first and we really didn't know what to expect. The first sip took us all back, it tasted heavily of raspberry with no malty flavors at all. It ended with a slight sour that lingered on your pallet but wasn't overpowering.

Lindemans Kriek

Next was the Kriek (sour cherry). It too poured out lightly carbonated with very little head. the color had a little more red than the Framboise but very if at all. It smelled strong of cherry, but with slighter sweet smell than the Framboise had. The smell reminded some of us of Ludens cough drops, but once the beer hit your tounge that notion went away. The beer had of course a strong cherry flavor, and was sweet at the begining but ended sour. In all we enjoyed both beers the girls prefered the Kriek but I prefered the Framboise. Overall very easy drinking and good beers. See ya next time for the barely legal beer tasting.

Holden (refused to put on a shirt), Bear and Ethan.