A little more sharp on the alcohol. Overtones of licorice candy, sugar syrup. Quite good but it can't measure up to the Grainshift.
Firestone Walker Grainshift (2025)
Delicious, smooth and frothy. Graham and chocolate at the forefront; otherwise it feels like everything I remember about Parabola (a beer I have not had in some time).
There's something savory/fermented about the smell here; it reminds me a little of black bean paste (jjajang), so you can bet I was worried. Flavor is actually quite nice: dried fig, a decent amount of heat, caramel but unsweet. Less desserty than other Parabola variants.
Chocolate/caramel-forward, very warming. Toasted pretzel. There's a sharpness of bite, rye-like, and a woody edge on the thing, and I can't decide if that's a bug or a feature. My assumption is this will get more awesome with time.
Sweet with that same bit of musty nuttiness that seems to be common to all of these golden stouts and porters. It was a better match once I got the fish wrap.
Dry to the point of almost being sour, but otherwise very flavorful. Cereal, hints of apricot, grassy, bitter finish.
Caramel, smooth, actually fairly sweet. Pretty strongly bitter in a way that counteracts the nitro smoothness.
This is a nice, creamy and lightly sweet porter, but I honestly cannot taste any plum in it.
Not tart, exactly, or savory, especially, but the essence of pickle juice is here in the smell, the taste. One might wish that this was a little more assertive in anouncing its pickleness; I like it, but there's a little bit of uncanny valley in the way it sits at the edge.
Don't know if this is the age but this feels a little lighter in body than expected, very subdued. Really smooth whiskey notes on top, caramel, light booze, but there's something missing here, especially with "toasted" being in the name.
Really tasty. I don't like raspberries, honestly, but what this beer evokes is the smell of a frashly bought box of berries before you eat them and realize you don't actually like raspberries. Fragrant and dry and clean with a hint of white chocolate and cereal funk.
The least remarkable beer here. Sweet and hoppy with a kind of oily resin following through in the flavor.
Surprising and delicious. You have the banana and just hint of white pepper here, present from the other beers here, but there's exactly enough fruit flavor and tartness here to create a profile that's not exactly apricot and not exactly anything else - just a really bright, berry-like bell ring of a flavor. I love this.
Banana, clove, white pepper. Light and pleasing, and the sweetness counteracts the characteristic closing bitterness here realy nicely. I do like this.
A bit acerbic, strongly medicinal herbal quality about this (ginseng?) with strong white pepper and a touch of clove. Otherwise sweet and light.
Flavorful pilsner, cereal, lightly sweet and grassy.
Super-fragrant; lemon, pine, touch of apricot. Very clean and mellow but oily finish.
I don't remember how I felt about this, other than clearly thinking this tasted more like ginger snaps than what I think of as gingerbread.
Tart, extremely thick, kind of like drinking a melted mango sorbet (complimentary!). Almost unidentifiable as beer.
Maybe it was having this after the Jinju, but this almost felt like drinking vinegar. It was just so much!
Really nice and mellow but to be fair it's hard to start strong and work down. I liked it but there's no way I can accurately describe this.
Intensely fragrant, over the top I think.
Fort George Matryoshka (2025)
Boozy, sweet, caramel, slightly tart. There's fruitiness in the lingering aftertaste. As usual, it's a lot, but it's nice.
A piney, pithy IPA, with some mellow/bitter sweetness that I can only imagine is coming from the tea. I like tea beers but I kind of wish it wasn't sweet-on-sweet; I think the effect is best when there's something in opposition to mellow.
They renamed this "Benevolent Blonde" for charity. Tastes a little fruitier, a little less lagery than my previous description. Not bad.
After the previous two beers this really kind of stuck out as gimmicky. A bit over-roasty and tacky with cinnamon coming through first, and then a not super integrated apple flavor.
A really fine dubbel ... brown sugar and biscuit up front, with a unexpectedly fruity, dry finish. Raisin-ish, maybe.
This is absolutely no knock on the beer; it was just under 12 years old! In fact, in its defense it was surprisingly palatable for a beer that age: no weird sediment, some molasses caramel syrup, a clean but prominent raw alcohol flavor. Enough left to hint at past greatness, even if we waited too long.
Very dry, very peachy - like the flesh of the fruit and not at all candy-like. Assertively tart but not puckeringly sour. Extremely clean.
Both coconut and vanilla are the faintest hints, but there’s an overall mild sweetness that works well with the cask flatness. Slightly tart and tacky but cleans up quick.
A clean if unremarkable lemon-pine IPA. Maybe if this wasn't my third I would have a more defined opinion on it.
A really nce citrus hazy with notes of orange and mango. No bitterness and a clean finish.
Intense citrus/grape fruitiness, almost over the top but stats on the right side. Bright and finishes mellow.
May have been a mispour, sinc ethis tastes very much like a wit. Peppery and estery, dry and very drinkable. (Tap was one away from Holy Mountain White Lodge—possibly that?)
Fragrant and flavorful, a robust lager with fruity/citrus overtones.
Thick and sweet, like most Bottle Logic stouts. Smells very nutty and tastes like smooth chocolate sauce, and booze. In my memory this isn't quite as great as the Shell Theory, but it is very nice.
Fragrance of banana hard candy. Flavor is not so much cream pie, but is very roasty coffee, candy banana. Thick and tacky.
Grapey, unsweet, light buttery notes and some dry bitterness bring out the vinous aspects nicely. Alcohol pokes through a bit strongly.
