Sunday, December 4, 2016

December 4th - Weyerbacher Sunday Mole Stout

I'm sorry...it's legit the first thing that I thought of when starting this post tonight!

Rounding out a birthday weekend for my son, along with a family Polar Express train ride today, I should probably skip the beer and head to bed when the kids do tonight.  However, I persevere onward.  I mean, it's only December 4th.  If I took a night off now that would tarnish my credibility.  And we wouldn't want that now would we?

Appropriately named for the day today, we have from Easton, PA, Weyerbacher Sunday Mole Stout.  This is a heavy hitting sipper of a stout that weighs in at a hefty 11.3% ABV.  According to the stats on the label, this Imperial Stout is made with coffee, cocoa, cinnamon, and peppers.



Weyerbacher beers are nothing new to me.  I believe that I've told you before about how my brother and sister in law lived in the Lehigh Valley for a time, before any of us had kids.  One night, we decided to sample all of the 4 varieties from the Big Box of Beers from this brewery.  Let's just say it didn't end well that night.  Lesson learned, pay attention to the ABV!



Anyways, Weyerbacher makes a similar beer to this one, Sunday Morning Stout.  I HIGHLY recommend picking that beer up if you're into darker beers with some sweet bourbon flavor.  



As for this particular stout, when pouring the beer into my trusty stout glass there was no surprise at the jet black liquid that came from the bottle.  It disappeared quickly, but there was a creamy, mahogany head here with the initial pour.

The aroma was definitely chocolate/cocoa, roasted malts, coffee, and slight notes of spicy pepper.  Call me crazy, but I get sweet notes, like that of bourbon.  When warmer, it definitely had a stronger alcohol smell to it in addition to the rest of the notes here.

As we've read time and time again (or not if you're new here), my experience is that heavier beers take on a whole new profile as they warm up towards 50 degrees or so.  I learned that one night before I had a palate on New Year's Eve while drinking Sam Adams Infinium.

They don't even make this anymore...shameful actually


Regardless of temperature tonight, this beer is dominated by spicy pepper.  It's not too hot, but the pepper outshines all of the other ingredients, in my humble opinion.  The other flavors like coffee and chocolate still come through, but are still dominated by the peppers.  Also, there is some dry cinnamon in the finish, but again, it's dominated by the alcohol bite.  With a high ABV, there is absolutely a warming sensation that you would expect from a big beer.  Perfect to warm up on a cold December evening by the fire.



There are some issues I do have with this beer tonight unfortunately.  The first sip I took while this was cold reminded me of drinking something metallic.  I thought maybe my palate was off from dinner or something else, but after logging it into my trusty Untappd app, some other users had the same feelings.  Secondly, this beer became astringent tasting as it got warmer.  I'm all for an alcohol bite and/or warming sensation, but not in a beer with so many other flavors that could be showcased.

All things considered, I do have 3 more of these that I'll definitely be sharing.  So, if you receive one of these from me, I guess you know why if you're reading!  

I promise you it's not THIS bad!!!  I won't be wrapping it however...


Unfortunately I wanted to like this, but I just can't at the moment.  I need to go back and update my original Untappd rating of a 3.25/5.
2.5 sad snowmen out of 5 



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