#beercember

December 12th, 2015 Beercember Review and Haiku #12 Fulton St Blend Coffee Ale Goose Island Brewing Company Chicago, IL Coffee Blend? No Lie! This Golden Ale Surprised Me. Not in a Good Way. I love coffee and I love beer. In fact, I am usually drinking one or the other so I thought this was a sure fire win. Not even close. I mean, come on guys, how could this get screwed up? Here's how. I cracked the bottled open and poured this into a chilled glass and took my first sip hoping to have that "aaahhhhhh" moment. Instead I got the taste of flat beer and coffee grounds. I felt like I was eating the grounds after they were used to brew the coffee. Now, I shouldn't have been taken back by this. It says right on the label -- "Rich coffee flavor & aroma in a Golden Ale." Everything about that statement is true. But this just did not mesh well with my taste buds. My Rating: 3.5 out of 10 Beercember Crew: awaiting more results.

This beer pours the color and clarity of golden light honey with a thin head that retreats to the edge of the glass quickly. It smells of sweet citrus and pineapple. The taste of this beer is unbelievable. You may have heard me on the podcast or read me on here the site wax on poetically of the magic of the Belgian style, the yeasts they use and the crazy fruity flavors that come from them without the addition of any actual fruit. But the Quebec based Unibroue seems to have duplicated and in my opinion improved on the style creating a strong beer that is easy to drink, rich, with creamy pineaple and orange flavors. This is probably my favorite Belgian of all time, although Belgian's are one of my favorite beers styles so I am far from done with all my research. What I really like about La Fin Du Monde is the level of carbonation. It seems to have a much higher level of carbination than other Belgians. The Champaign like bubbles really help finish the brew, leaving a clean taste in your mouth after each sip. As you can tell I really can't say enough about this beer. It's obviously a 5/5 for me. I could drink this beer for breakfast on Christmas morning. _Merry Beercember!!!!_ ...

The taste is classic Belgian which is to say it tastes somewhat fruity despite there being no fruit in the mix. A brewmaster I am not, but It's something about the yeast and fermentation process in this technique that produces the fruity sweetness. I taste apricots, caramel or maybe honey, perhaps some lemon or orange citrus. It reminds me a bit of tea, in fact. Surprisingly the strong scent of alcohol doesn't follow through to the flavor nearly as much as I thought. No doubt it's there as my tounge is slowly numbing but, it was the first thing I smelled and nearly the last thing I noticed in the flavor. The finish is smooth and fairly clean. The citrus and honey (tea) flavors do seem to linger but are not at all unpleasant. I'm hemming and hawing between a 5 and 4 for this beer's rating, but the happy time magic hour rating method says when in doubt round up. "The tie goes to the beer." So this is another 5/5 rating for me. All in all I'd say this is a great American Craft Brew example of a Belgian Quad. The biggest problem this beer has is it's so easy to drink your likely to forget it's nearly 12% ABV. Go easy on this one tonight, its nearly three beers in one bottle. ;-) Mmmm mmm Merry Beercember friends. Belgian's can be an acquired taste, be sure and let me know what you think of this ale in the comments. ...

Ten Fidy comes in a can, something we don't see a lot of yet but I think we may see more and more craft brewers taking advantage of soon. It also has a really high ABV for a stout, a whopping 9.5%. This brew pours from the can like 10W-30 oil, it's pitch black, with a paper thin brown head. That taste is like an imperial stout on steroids. Everything about this beer is BIG. Big roasted malts, big coffee, big carbonation, and big ABV, oh wait I said that already, could be the pain meds... Anyway, it's true you can have too much of a good thing. Everything about this beer would be great if it were about halved. For example the roasted coffee flavor is so big at almost tastes burnt. The finish lingers with the taste of alcohol. Now normally I do like the high alcohol beers, but this one is just trying a bit too hard for my taste. I have to rate this a 3/5. It;s a good beer, but I think all the big flavors hinder what could be a really great beer. _Disclaimer, I will have to come back to this one and try it sometime when I can_ _properly enjoy (swallow) the brew._ So what did you think of this big brew? Go a head and let me know if the meds are interfering with my taste buds. :) ...

It smells of coffee, chocolate, and roasted malt. It pours very dark brown, a tad more chocolaty than the black lager from last night, but, not much. The head is thin but persistent. The taste is good, surprisingly bitter, creamy, a bit of coffee, with a dry finish. It's very drinkable, the bitterness cleans up the richness nicely and leaves you thirsting for more, but it's a bit over the top for me. I like the carbonation, it adds quite a bit to the drink ability of this one. However, I really don't see how this is an "A" brew. Perhaps it's because I prefer a stout to a porter in my dark beers, or just because I'm not yet a fan of the extreme bitterness that we find in so many American micro brews, some times it works really well, sometimes it just seems unnecessary. None the less it's a very solid beer, It simply can't be rated any less than a 3/5 using the incredibly complex happy time magic hour system. We have another Great Lakes brew coming up, I'm curious to see how it is. _Merry Beercember gang_, oh and feel free to use the comments to tell me how insane I am. I get that a lot. ;-) ...

There seems to be some confusion around the Nathaniel Square Corner Store #12beers event. So [@tryfailtry](http://twitter.com/tryfailtry) and I have (well mostly him) have put together our Suggested order of drinking the beers. **1) [Fuller's ESB](http://happytimemagichour.com/post/282568164/12beers-of-beercember-fullers-esb-review)** **2) [Left Hand Milk Stout](http://happytimemagichour.com/post/283843963/12beers-of-beercember-left-hand-milk-stout-review)** **3) [Köstritzer Schwarzbier](http://happytimemagichour.com/post/285477360/12beers-of-beercember-kostritzer-schwarzbier-review)** **4) [Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald](http://happytimemagichour.com/post/286912781/12beers-of-beercember-great-lakes-edmund-fitzgerald)** **5) [Flying Dog In-Heat Wheat](http://happytimemagichour.com/post/288213542/12beers-of-beercember-flying-dogs-in-heat-wheat)** **6) [Oskar Blues 10 FIDY](http://happytimemagichour.com/post/289735131/12beers-of-beercember-oskar-blues-ten-fidy)** **7) [ Orkney Brewery SkullSplitter](http://happytimemagichour.com/post/290836280/12beers-of-beercember-skull-splitter-orkney-ale-review)** **8) [Weyerbacher Quad](http://happytimemagichour.com/post/292565171/12beers-of-beercember-weyerbacher-quad-review)** **9) [Spaten Optimator](http://happytimemagichour.com/post/294392258/12beers-of-beercember-spaten-optimator-review)** **10) [Great Lakes Nosferatu](http://happytimemagichour.com/post/295997708/12beers-of-beercember-great-lakes-nosferatu-review)** **11) Unibroue La Fin du Monde** **12) Troegs Mad Elf** This is by no means a required list but, if you want to play along with us and drink the same brew on the same night that we are, this is the suggested order. Also there is some confusion on the twitter hash tag, apparently it was supposed to be #12beers, but the card printed on Nathanial Square Corner Store 12 packs has a typo and says #12beer. So you may want to check [#12beer](http://twitter.com/#search?q=%2312beer), [#12beers](http://twitter.com/#search?q=%2312beers), & [#Beercember](http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23beercember) to see who is playing. Be sure to add who you find to your follow list on twitter too. ;-) _Merry Beercember!!!_