Review 116: Laphroaig 10 Yr

Review 116

12/11/12

Laphroaig 10 Yr: 43% abv

Cue the epic music, ladies and gentlemen. We’ve got it here for you. Our first peated Scotch review. This is already a point of contention, before I even start writing this review. Peated Scotch is a completely different animal than its non-peated counterparts, so there was some hesitation about posting the review. Peated Malts can be complex and hard to handle, and we didn’t want to do it disservice. 

So what is a peated Scotch, first of all? Peat is a moss, found in Scotland in rainier areas, used as a fuel source. The history behind peat moss is an interesting one. One characteristic of it is that it burns slow, so it is a good source for heating homes. Due to economic strife, distillers in the Isle of Islay turned to peat to dry their barley in the malting process, but this generally added a strong smokey flavor to the whiskies. Peated whisky has been regarded as so medicinal tasting, that people got away with selling it during prohibition because it wasn’t regarded as drinkable for pleasure. 

Now this is somewhat of a trend for Islay distillers, so now we have some pretty unique whiskies on the market. This was actually my first bottle of peated Single Malt, because it is known to be one of the more heavily peated whiskies in mass production right now as a brand. So what is peat like? Think of a campfire. That smell is sort of what you’ll taste. And we’ll get more into that. Here are some tasting notes for the 10 year Laphroaig. 

On the nose, you’ll get exactly what I just described. A campfire peatiness, with ashy wood in direct contact. Beyond this, you’ll find salty notes of seaweed and sea water. This is counteracted by the sweet barley smell and wheat, some slight vanilla, and some lemon scent. The challenge in dealing with a peated whisky is working past the peat notes to further understand what makes the whisky unique. 

The arrival presents briny sea salt, vegetal flavors, seaweed, but even some sweet melon, vanilla, molasses, and a hint of slight apple. The taste leads some bigger, more complex notes, including peat smoke, barley, malt, salt, sweet light melon, honey flavors, and some sugar. After adding water, there is a sweet breadiness to the whisky, with rye, and mild spices. The finish is big in this whisky, and will linger with you for a while. Notes include seaweed, sea salt, vegetal flavors, slight olive oil, slight maltiness, dark peat, ashy taste, sugar, sweet fruits, black pepper big smokiness, menthol, subtle medicinal notes, and charred oak. This finish is oddly very uninhibited by the addition of water. 

So in general, this is a BIG flavored whisky, with a surprisingly calm arrival, thin body, and a huge finish. It is well blended in its array of flavors. It is important to note that Islay Scotches generally provoke descriptors that are a little more obscure or maybe bizarre to the normal drinker. This might include notes like engine oil, phenol, and we’ve even heard once “greasy rope”. Don’t let this drive you away from tasting one of these whiskies. We are going to stay away from these descriptors because we generally aren’t chewing on greasy ropes. Imagine that...So this is a great whisky. 

Score: 8.75/10

Review 115: Macallan 10 Yr

Review 115

12/10/12

Macallan 10 Yr Fine Oak: 40% abv

Macallan. Macallan is among the more well-known Scotches in the world. Generally speaking, if you compare Macallan to Glenfiddich or Glenlivet, you’ll generally pay more per year with a Macallan. Does this mean much of anything? No. Macallan has several lines of whisky. Two kinds of Macallan 10 Yr exist. This one is labeled as the “Fine Oak” variant. So let’s talk briefly about what kinds of oak are used in this Malt. 

This whisky actually blends three kinds of oak influences: European oak “seasoned” w/ sherry, American oak “seasoned” w/ sherry, and American oak “seasoned” w/ bourbon. I put quotations around the seasoned because I’ve never heard anybody use this before, but I’m fairly sure that’s the same as aging something. After all, they probably aren’t sprinkling on some dried bourbon flakes, I imagine. So what do you get from this? 

The nose provides a good grain note, malt, sherry, raisons, vanilla, slight lemon citrus, nutmeg, wheat, and light fruits. The nose doesn’t appear to be overly complex, but it contains some enjoyable aromas. The arrival on this whisky, once tasted, provides a a few tasting notes. Among these flavors, you get sweet fruit, light citrus, vanilla, a mild tartness, grain, and even some buttery character. The taste adds with smooth vanilla, grain, malt, wheat, barley, orange, and mild pepper. The body hits with a hugely grainy palate, but dissipates quickly. The finish comes in and introduces the sherry to the palate, with big raison and soft cocoa notes, sherry, malt, vanilla, toffee, butterscotch, wheat and caramel. The finish is medium in length, and misses on great complexity. 

This whisky isn’t horribly complex, as you might be able to tell, but it does do a number of things better than Glenfiddich or Glenlivet would with their youngest statement, including perfect blended balance, defined flavors, and smooth quality. This truly is a great beginners Scotch, but lacks in complexity.

Score: 8.25/10

Review 114: Glenfarclas 12 Yr

Review 114

12/8/12

Glenfarclas 12 Yr: 43% abv

Glenfarclas is a Highland Single Malt distillery, which is actually not very well known in Michigan. They provide their bottling in a practical cardboard canister that doesn’t really jump out at people when they see it, which might be its only crime against humanity. I can assure you that this whisky is worth that second look, despite the plain looking packaging. At 43% and an affordable price, Glenfarclas 12 hits the right marks. This whisky also does a great job of demonstrating that there whiskies with the influence of sherry that don’t need to be predominantly sweet. 

So on the nose, we’ll start off by saying there is that sherry. Sherry is coupled by malt, butterscotch, agave, gingerbread, caramel, sugar, vanilla, slight black pepper, rye, slight wet grass, and cream. It is a light, mellow nose that won’t jump out at you, but it does have a subtle complexity with a huge spectrum of flavors. The arrival does give you a great introduction into the Scotch, with vanilla, sherry, caramel, malt, sweet sugar, and a slight pepper bitterness. The body adds to this with butterscotch, slight floral notes, pear, pepper, vanilla, malt, spiciness, dry oak, and herbal notes, with some saltiness to it as well. After water, there is more saltiness and herbal notes to the whisky. The finish gives off sherry, raisons, caramel, malt, slight salty brininess, vanilla, pepper, pear, mint, tobacco, greens and herbs. 

There is a slight heat to the finish, but it is pleasant and not overbearing. Sot his might not necessarily sound like the longest list of tasting notes, so you might not think it’s the most complex, but in reality, the balanced blend of flavors does a great job of adding an intrinsic quality and complexity to this Scotch. As far as sherried Scotches go, this one takes the cake for uniqueness, mixing a weird herbal and tobacco flavor with sweetness. We also didn’t get the full scope of flavors, so we think there is more to this whisky than we’ve gathered. Highly recommended. 

Score: 9.0/10

Review 113: Dogfish Head Olde School Barleywine

Review 113

12/7/12

Dogfish Head Olde School: 15% abv

Dogfish Head again, with a limited production barleywine. We’ve done a few barleywines, but they are not frequent. Since we’re waiting to do Bolt Cutter by Founders, it seems we will give you a teaser with this beer. What makes this beer interesting is it is brewed with figs and dates, which means something somewhere. This barleywine is obviously strong, at 15%, and we haven’t tried a whole lot of 15% beers that are easy drinkers. At this level, flavor is huge and the beers are sippers. This is no exception. But let’s see how it treats us. 

On the nose, you get apple, pear, barley sugars, sweet sugars, raspberry, light peach, caramel, wheat, malt, and honey. You can tell right off the bad that this beer does reflect quite a few sweeter flavors, but doesn’t hold a large amount of complexity. The arrival is actually a little more complex than we are used to in a beer, with caramel, berries, apples, blackberry, honey, lemon-lime soda, and maple. Again, there is a theme here. The body is pretty light in the variety of flavors, containing malted barley, wheat, sweet apple, caramel, and maple. The finish gets slightly more complex with honey, banana, wheat, barley, dry red wine, grain, maple, yeast, and a slight sourness. 

This beer is straight forward then. Not terribly complex, but super sweet and prominent. This isn’t like other barleywines in that it lacks the bitterness or slight hoppiness that counterbalances the sweetness. This could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how you prefer your drinks. This is a rich drink, so it will probably be your only one for the night, lest you desire a cavity. There was some disagreement amount the group on how to score this beer. It lacks a lot of complexity, but it is a unique offering among a group of barleywines, and you might like that. Originally slotted for a 7.5 out of 10, but on further consideration, it seems this still has the potential to be an enjoyable, quality beverage. It might not be worth your cash unless you want a sweet, relaxing beer. 

Score: 8.0/10

Review 112: Founder's Backwoods Bastard

Review 112

12/6/12

Founder’s Backwoods Bastard: 10.2% abv

Here we go with another review. Backwoods Bastard. Might ring a bell, even if you haven’t heard of it. Why? Well, this is a bourbon-barrel aged Scotch Ale. I’ve done some small research on Scotch Ales, because there is a bit of contention about this term in our minds. If you go to Founder’s website, they will tell you Backwoods Bastard is reminiscent of a Single Malt. I will clarify to you that this is not the case. It contains malt flavors, but in this sense it reminds us of malted barley, as is a prominent flavor in TONS of beers. The problem we have with saying this is reminiscent of Single Malt Scotch is that it really won’t remind you of that, and eludes to some intrinsic quality in the beer. This beer has no real affiliation with the spirit itself, so far as we can tell. 

Anyway, now let’s talk about the beer itself. The nose has malt in it for sure, but you get the classic bourbon dominant flavors like caramel, oak, large butterscotch, toffee, vanilla, and wheat. There is even the presence of raisons, cream, plain yogurt, molasses, and slight starfruit. That makes this a fairly unique, interesting nose. The arrival reflects the smell pretty accurately, but with a little less to it. Prominent flavors include vanilla, butterscotch, caramel, and dried fruits. The body contains the same sort of flavors, with butterscotch, malt, vanilla, caramel, weak coffee, milk chocolate, creaminess, and even slight ginger. The finish contains cinnamon, malt, vanilla, butterscotch, caramel, slight grapefruit and apple. 

We can comment that is a pretty bourbon-dominated beer, and if you want to understand the influence bourbon has on beer, this is a great combination of two beers to try it out, with Dirty Bastard and Backwoods Bastard. On the other hand, we think this bourbon influence was a little overdone. A unique quality that bourbon brings out in beer is a creamy butterscotch flavor, which isn’t necessarily huge in bourbon itself, but time and time again we see it in these beers to varying degrees. Overall, the complexity wasn’t earth shattering, and neither was the balance. We like Dirty Bastard better and this could use a little less of its oak time. 

Score: 8.25/10

Review 111: Balvenie 14 Yr Carribean Cask

Review 111

12/5/12

The Balvenie 14 Yr Caribbean Cask: 43% abv

Unfortunately, Balvenie thinks that they are THE Ohio State, so I titled is as they did, but I it against any fiber in my being to do so, because this is actually quite an awesome brand of Scotch. So for the rest of The Review, I will be calling this Balvenie. Balvenie is owned by Grant’s & Sons, which makes Grant’s Blended Scotch and owns Glenfiddich. Glenfiddich and Balvenie are also geographical neighbors as well, which makes this an interesting comparison. Here’s a fun experiment for you to try. Put Balvenie 12 Yr Double Wood and Glenfiddich 12 Yr next to each other and compare. You’ll be absolutely shocked by the differences, if you pay enough attention. So here we go. Balvenie 14 Yr. You don’t see a great number of rum casks being used for whisky, partially because the regulation on how often you can use casks for a rum don’t exist, so rum producers have very little reason to dispose of their casks. There is more to it then that, but this is also why sherried whiskies are more expensive and rare. 

How does this one fair and what does it add to the whisky? Well, on the nose we get a complex blend of flavors, including barley, malt, oak, light green grape, vanilla, a subtle blend of bananas and anise, molasses, nutmeg, slight lemon, soft apple, toffee, white chocolate, and spicy fruits. {Deep inhale}. Alright. So yeah, this one has a lot to it on the nose. And after adding water, you’ll get more malt in the nose, with additions of caramel and sea salt. The arrival is strangely going to contradict the nose. There is malt and huge vanilla on the arrival, with some spiciness and caramel. After adding water, the arrival deteriorates greatly. The body makes up for this with more complexity. Vanilla, malt grain, caramel, cinnamon, ginger, slight mint, apple, honeydew, honey and slight saltiness are all present in the body. Vanilla is first in line here for a reason. The vanilla in this is so huge, as a compliment of the cask it was aged in. The body will not do well in water, as it just backs off the flavor. The finish contains vanilla, toffee, malt, slight saltiness, caramel, molasses/brown sugar, cinnamon, confectioner’s sugar, dry black pepper, honey, and slight mint. 

The finish remains relatively unchanged with water. So this is a complex Single Malt. This whisky will not do well if left out for over a half hour or so. It will thin out and taste dull. So pour small drams and enjoy at a leisurely pace. This isn’t the MOST complex Scotch, partially due to the fact that the Caribbean cask is very dominant in influencing the flavors with sweetness. All the same, it is a wonderful expression and we know many people who love this. Do note: this isn’t one of their standards so if you want it, buy it now. And we suggest you do. 

Score: 9.0/10

Review 110: Bell's This One Goes to 11

Review 110

12/4/12

Bell’s This One Goes to 11 Ale: 11% abv

Okay. Bell’s put this one out for their 11,000th batch, and they got a little out of hand with the number 11. I’m not sure what the significance of the word 11 is, or if there is just a lot of things you can do with it, but they sure did a lot to emphasize it. You’ll notice that its name is so cleverly crafted, AND it is at 11%. Oh Bell’s, you never cease to impress. Okay, onto the beer. This is an imperial red ale, which we haven’t seen a whole bunch of, but it sounds good enough. So what’s it like? 

Well, the nose is pretty impressive. Right of the bat, you can find grapefruit and fruity citrus notes come out in the form of lemon and grape acidity. There is also the addition of red apple, pear, pear skins, barley grain, pine resin, pineapple, and agave. So with this slew of notes you should think we’re crazy. The point is it has a fruity, but slightly bitter nose with some sweetness and maltiness to it. It is complex and enjoyable. Now I’ve told you the good news? Do you want to hear the bad news? Too bad. The arrival starts off well, with a sweet, mellow overtone of malt, with caramel, creaminess, molasses, agave, and some pine tastes to it. That pine obviously introduces the bitter into the beer. The body is malty, with caramel, lemon rind, slight bitterness, slight apple, and some hops. So not very complex, with primarily grain and bitterness to offer. The finish is identical with the addition of grapefruit. Translation: more bitterness. 

Don’t get me wrong, this beer isn’t excessively bitter in comparison to some of those beers out there, but it just doesn’t have other flavors to justify it. Now, there is a footnote to this as well. Generally speaking, this would garner a harsh score, but we have had some inventory issues, so this beer has been sitting around for about two months. We’ve been told that this beer is at its prime fresh off the shelf. We can’t score this as a winner, but there is a potential that what we’ve reported could be less than what this beer’s maximum potential is. 

Score: 7.25/10