I've now been back in the US Midwest for 5 weeks (3 weeks left to go until I get to go home and make my next homebrew); I've visited a few breweries, I've been doing tasting of various Rye Ales from Midwest breweries, but I'm suprised to say that what has driven me to make this post is one of the most distinctive, extreme, CRAZY beers I've ever tried:
Southern Tier Creme Brulee Stout.
10% ABV, 25 Degrees Plato; a combination of 2-row pale malt, dark caramel malt, vanilla beans (tons and tons of them apparently), lactose, columbus kettle hops, and horizon aroma hops.
This is the single sweetest and most vanilla flavoured beer I've ever had; I attempted to open it on the latch in my hotel room and it exploded over the room and left the room truly smelling like creme brulee. I have NO IDEA what kind of witchcraft/trickery they used to make a beer taste like creme brulee but they most definitely did it.
Insanely sweet; brings new definition to the term "cloyingly sweet", but is LOADED with slightly burnt sugar and vanilla flavor. The bottle recommended serving it at 5.5C (42F), I tasted it at room temperature of 70F and I would have it no other way. I'm afraid of the caloric content of this one, but it is truely insane it tastes almost like, in addition to vanilla beans in the fermenter, that they added italian vanilla coffee flavorings. I've had no beer that is remotely like it.
This is dessert in a bottle; it happens to be a 650ml bottle (which is about 3x too big for a beer this sweet)but it helps to justify the price..
SUPER EXTREME; the brewer should probably seek professional help.
Adam
