Trying not only a new beer, but a new brewery tonight.  RJ Rockers Brewing Company which is not too far down the road from me in Spartanburg, SC is the producer of Black Pearle Dark IPA, which they call a 80-minute octo-hopped IPA.   And it’s dark, obviously.   The presentation is definitely not an afterthought, as the bottle cap is topped with a fairly massive wax seal.  The head, as you can see from the photo is huge and lasts an age, and had a texture that’s remarkably similar to the foam that you get from a root beer float.  This beer has more foam than I’ve ever seen before.  By a lot.  I feared that might mean it was overly carbonated, but it’s not, not at all.  It’s nearly flat, in fact, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  The nose is super roasty with chocolate and coffee notes, and the middle is heavily hopped, with lots of bitterness balanced by sugary sweetness.  There’s a bit of pine, but the middle is mostly citrus, bitter rind and sweet grapefruit and toffee.  For all the sugar and bitterness in the middle, the finish is surprisingly dry, with notes of cocoa at the front.  There’s an undercurrent of booziness throughout, but it’s subtle, and not unpleasant.   This is a really nice, interesting beer, and I’m definitely going to be looking to sample more of RJ Rockers offerings in the future.

Boulevard Brewing’s Single-Wide IPA is a wheat IPA which means that that signature hoppy bitterness of the American IPA is even more dominant than normal.  There’s a foamy long lasting head and the scent is citrusy, with orange and grapefruit.  The middle and finish have a ton of pine, with some lingering citrus in the background.   It is a hop bomb if I’ve ever had one, and a good beer for sure, but there’s nothing that makes it stand out for me.  Enjoyable, but unremarkable.

I finally got my hands on a coveted bottle of Bitches Brew, which pays homage to the Miles Davis album of the same name.   I have to be honest, when I saw that this was brewed with honey, I expected this to pour golden and sticky sweet, maybe along the lines of Black and Blue.  I was wrong.  This beer pours as black as coal, and the sweetness is chocolaty and rich.  The nose is roasty, with cocoa and a fruitiness reminiscent of Belgian yeast.  The middle is rich, with bitter chocolate in the background and sweet, heavy milky body in the foreground.  The finish is balanced between the sweet and the dry notes, with some vanilla right at the end.  This is a wonderfully complex and well executed beer.  I need to go get another bottle to put away, to see how it changes with age.

Stone’s 16th Anniversary IPA is a delicious double IPA brewed with lemon, and what it perhaps my favorite grain, rye.   They’re both noticeable in the nose, through the fluffy meringue like head.  The middle is heavy and sticky and has plenty of sweet to balance the bitter.  The finish is heavy with lemon and offers a lingering bitterness.  Overall, this is a well balanced double IPA that has a nice touch with the addition of rye, but isn’t particularly remarkable.

It’s somewhat fitting that as the Northeast cleans up after superstorm Sandy that I’m wishing them well with local pirate themed beer;  Winter Storm, an imperial ESB from the Heavy Seas line by Clipper City Brewing in Baltimore, Maryland.  The scent is grainy and slightly floral.  The middle is caramel with more pine than I’m used to in an ESB.  It seems they’ve hopped this one up a bit.  As for the “Imperial” it’s definitely heavier than your average ESB, with a medium to heavy body and a bit of chewiness at the finish, and at 7.5% ABV it’s a fairly potent brew.  Overall this is a really nice, well balanced beer.

Tonight I’m trying out an imperial stout from Boulevard Brewing in Missouri, called Dark Truth Stout.  It pours an inky black, and has a super dense long-lasting head.  The scents are of chocolate and coffee, with a slight astringency.  The middle is rich and creamy, with a heavy, milky body, and notes of chocolate and orange and bitter roasted malt.  The finish is sticky and lingers on the back of the tongue, and gives only the slightest hint of the alcohol that’s present in fairly substantial quantities.  (9.7% ABV)  This is a beautiful heavy beer, just right for a chilly fall night after dinner.

Another glorious Belgian strong dark ale from the folks at Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown, New York.   This beer pours quite nearly black, and there’s a light, fizzy head that has some decent staying power and imparts a slightly resinous bitter taste.  The nose is distinctively Belgian, with yeasty notes of sour fruit and bread.  The middle is rich and heavy, with cherries and plums, bitter cocoa and the slightest hint of espresso.  The finish is balanced bitterness with some sweet malt and tart fruit.  There’s more bitterness in this ale than I usually find in Belgian strong dark ales, but as a fan of IBUs, I’m not complaining, and it’s got every bit of the complexity that I expect and love in this style.  This is a really nice beer.

The last style in this back of Sierra Nevada Beer Camp brews that I’ve been reviewing off and on for the previous few weeks is an imperial red ale.  My first impression is that it’s more imperial than red.  Held up to the light, there is a deep and dark red hue to to the body.  The head is big and thick and meringue-like, and immediately gives away the huge hoppy profile.  The head tastes like pine and grapefruit.  The scent is of citrus and toasted malt.  The middle is bitter, with lots of pine and some caramel.   The finish is on the fruity side, with grapefruit and plums, along with some pine resin to keep it bitter right at the end.  It’s a medium body beer, and crisp, and reminds me a lot of a west coast IPA with a twist from the extra malt.   It’s really quite nice, and just behind the Oatmeal Stout for my favorite of the bunch.

I was quite intrigued by the Widmer Brothers Brewing Alchemy Project’s 2012 version of a Raspberry Russian Imperial Stout, so I decided to try it out tonight.  My first impression is that this is a big, dry, bitter imperial stout, so doubt about it.  The head is heavy and creamy, and nose is rich with roasted malt and chocolate.   When it hit my tongue, I was surprised by how dry it is.  There’s a hint of tartness more than sweetness from the berries, and more as it warms, but the first big flavors are of earth and coffee.  There’s a nice round finish with just a little bit of tart and bitter balanced, and a bit of alcohol throughout.  The body is medium to heavy, and it’s a pretty big beer at 9.3% ABV.   It was a nice twist on what’s really a good solid imperial stout without overwhelming it, or turning it into a fruit beer.   I really like it a lot.

Another wacky dark ale from Dogfish Head tonight.  Raison D’Être is a Belgian style ale brewed with Belgian sugars and raisins, of course.  The nose is of sweet fruit and bread.  The body is heavy and sticky, and the middle is sweet malt and intense grape flavors from the raisins.   I didn’t used to be a fan of Raison D’Être, but it’s grown quite a bit on me.  It isn’t as wonderfully complex as some of the traditional Belgian ales, but it’s a nice quirky ale, very heavy on the sweet and malty side of the scale, and a fun beer.