The obvious imagery, the simple label, and predicability of this beer as a big stout kept me away from this beer for while. Not that I’ve not sipped my fair share of 11% Imperial Stouts. Honestly, the fact that the bottle idea (a pirate theme) was platitudinal practically repulsed me from Black Flag. It’s strange [...]
Am I a little late on reporting this one? Probably. For what it’s worth, I’m happy to report that Britain specifically created a cabinet position for a Minister of Pubs. The reports I’ve seen and heard about this have been upbeat and positive. I think it is a very cool fact that beer is that [...]
Comparing methods of carbonating beer
Last time, I mentioned that I had two stages left in my process. The next to last stage was bourbon barreling the beer. I didn’t have a bourbon barrel. I did have bourbon, and I did have oak chips. That was enough for me. I took some of the oak chips and decided to let [...]
Many of you know that beer has the first place in my heart. You also know that bourbon stouts are a among my top beers. It should be no surprise to you that I love bourbon. I really don’t write about it much simply because this is a beer site. However, I just got a [...]
There’s a reason I called this brew “Chocolate Death” in earlier posts. As a stout, the beer had plenty of roasted barley and black patent malt. Yet I decided early on in the process to make sure that I used a ton of chocolate malt. It’s not as coffee tasting as the black patent and [...]
Last time, I left off by noting that my beer was chugging along nicely. However, I had reached the upper limits of the yeast type that I used, so what was I to do? Did you know that WLP 1099 has a fermentation potential of 25% ABV? That’s crazy. I didn’t add this at first [...]
Folding boxes. That’s what I did for about an hour at the Lost Abbey last Sunday while we were waiting on some friends who were caught in traffic. I saw that the Lost Abbey had tweeted about having a 1,000 boxes to fold. I’m not intending to brag, but Andrea and I make a great [...]
After staying up all night only to find out the announcement would come in the evening, I finally purchased some Dark Lord Day tickets. Last year’s sale day was full of anxiety, but at least I had a general idea as to when the tickets would go on sale. I’m not complaining—waiting is part of [...]
A big ass Imperial Stout by any other name is just as huge. I set out over three months ago to beat Tactical Nuclear Penguin, thinking it would be the strongest beer in the world for a little while. Boy, was I wrong. But I’ve learned a lot in the process and am determined to [...]
