Giant Beers over the Weekend

This past weekend, I had a bunch of friends over and knew it would be a great time to open some of my bigger beers. And when I say bigger, I mean both were over 18%. Seemed like good choices to split between the six of us rather than trying to drink the bottles by myself.

We started with The Bruery Black Tuesday, an 18.3% Bourbon Barrel Imperial Stout.

I've had samples of this before, but never as much as I had on Saturday. Very sweet sugary nose with some cherry, bourbon, and a decent amount of alcohol. It poured kind of thin for 18%, I felt, but on first sip the body was actually a bit thicker than its appearance suggested. First flavor was again the major sugary sweetness, followed by some rich bourbon, alcohol heat, and some dark cherries. Definitely super unique. Did I like it? Yeah, I'd say so though I don't think it was the best thing ever or anything. Better than say Dogfish Head World Wide Stout, but not nearly as good as Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Stout.

The other ridiculously strong beer we opened was DuClaw Colossus, an American Strong Ale weighing in at 21%.

Similarly to the Black Tuesday, there's a reasonably large presence of alcohol in this. However, it was also quite fruity and reasonably thick which masked it a bit. Started off kind of sugary, then a big fruitiness appeared, filled with apples and light cherry flavor. Alcohol is still present, but the thicker body and stronger fruit flavor helped with that a bit. I liked this though again the amount I drank was really plenty.

Glad I finally got to open these and super happy I didn't open them alone. I'd probably still be drunk. Both had high levels of alcohol present in the nose and body but at higher than 18%, it really wasn't that surprising. I do wish Black Tuesday had a little more stout flavor in it though as the bourbon, alcohol, and sugar all kind of overpowered it. I still have two bottles left though so maybe next time will change my feelings. Never know.