December 20 - Fish Tale - Yule Crack Up and Family Wagon

After yesterday's beer, nothing will compare. Why not throw Fish Tale Brewing to the wolves then, since you all know my love for them.  

Nope...you wont...

I found these bottles at my local Weis with a National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation Theme.  I didn't realize it was from Fish Tale until I got home unfortunately.  Well, I guess it's time to get down to business and find out what I already know...

Yep...I have a job to do Eddie

First up, Yule Crack Up, an 8.0% Gingerbread Stout.

This beer poured an opaque black color with a smooth brown head.  The aroma here was mostly a spicy malt that also smells watered down, if that's even a thing...  Aroma is also not pleasant spicy with what I assume are cloves, ginger, and nutmeg along with a hint of allspice.  The taste is clove, allspice, and nutmeg with a god awful finish that is not balanced and too bitter for a stout.  Well, at least my sinus headache is gone...

I got beer...no need for Tylenol tonight

1 out of 5...just awful

Since we had the family over to bake boatloads of Christmas cookies, I figured, why not drink another one and see how this goes.  I had another Fish Tale Christmas Vacation themed beer so I gave my brother in law the wheel.  I had him pour the next beer blind so I wasn't biased. He had the option of pouring the Sierra Nevada Terra Incognita or another Fish Tale beer.  My comment at first was, if this is a Fish Tale beer, I'll give you $1000. Then, I realized the error of my ways and said that if this is Fish Tale, it's the best one I've had. He didn't make me pay up...at least yet.

Next up is also from Fish Tale, called Family Wagon.  It  is an Imperial IPA which is also an 8%er.

 

The beer poured a clear golden color with a oily, soapy head.

The aroma was more of a sweet malt and citrus hop.  This beer had an earthy hop flavor with lots of malt and a decent, appropriate bitter finish.

This makes up for the earlier flop. 3 out of 5

Bonus brew for the Trifecta tonight!  Hey my brother in law bought it, so I'm going to drink it!

A collaboration brew with Boulevard Brewing in California, Terra Incognita from Sierra Nevada was brewed in 2014, weighing in at  9.8% ABV.  A strange, yet intriguing blend of the following are components of this beer:

13% ale
55% aged in wine barrels
32% aged in bourbon barrels

The beer poured a cherry and mahogany color with an off-white head at the top.  The aroma was that of indistinct malt, with just a touch of bourbon sweetness.  

As for the flavor, this beer had just the right touch of bourbon sweetness and wine dryness.  Definitely an overall good blend of components!!

4 out of 5 for this one!!