The start of vacation beers!

Wednesday night, I opened a bottle of Founders Imperial Stout that was bottled in 2009.

Poured with no head but it still had a little carbonation.  Mild coffee smell.  First sip had some pleasant roasted notes with some coffee notes.  A little bitterness and some slight fruitiness are found, but they quickly disappear.  Nice thick mouthfeel on it.  Considering it's 10%, the alcohol is really well hidden.  Enjoyable Imperial Stout and another good one from Founders, a brewery out of Michigan.  Their more well known stouts are Breakfast Stout or Kentucky Breakfast Stout, but this one compares positively especially if you aren't looking for a mouth full of coffee.

After that, since we were in Lee, we went to my favorite beer bar in the area, Moe's.  Quite a bit on draft, but the first thing that caught my eye was Lagunitas A Little Sumpin' Wild, a Belgian Strong Pale Ale.

Note that the wild in the name doesn't mean the beer has wild bacteria and yeast in it like a lot of people think.  I assume Lagunitas was just using that to imply it's wild and crazy since it uses Belgian yeast.  Confused the crap out of a lot of people though.  I had heard they originally wanted to name it A Little Sumpin' Belgian which would have made way more sense but oh well.  It had a strong hop smell without much citrus in it.  First sip was hoppy grapefruit flavors with some orange sweetness.  Bitterness didn't linger and each sip had a pleasant juiciness to it that resulted in a nice balance.  I liked it although it was hoppy and bitter enough up front that more than one glass would have been a bit of a chore.

After that, I went with Smuttynose S'muttonator, a doppelbock.

Smelled sweet with some caramel and toffee notes.  Nice, thick mouthfeel on it.  Initially it had a tasty caramel and toffee flavor, following the nose, but unfortunately it finished harsh and bitter.  I thought the bitterness would fade but it just kept building.  I enjoy sweet doppelbocks so the bitter finish threw me off.  Just didn't find the flavors blended incredibly well and would have preferred sweet throughout.  Not terrible, but hard to drink, at least for me.  Nice glass though.

Look for a couple more posts from me while I'm on vacation including my first glass of Splinter Blue.  Really, really excited to open that.