Alpine Beer Company Nickel Stout

Formerly brewed at Alpine Beer Company (CA)
Style: Stout
Alpine, California USA

Wow! Thanks goes to brewfiend for supplying this fine brew. Pours a new opaque dark brown brew with red highlights and a fast dissolving tan head. Aroma of dark chocolate, sour cherries, and oaky whiskey. Nearly has a light Flemish Sour character. Taste is full bodied, hardly any carbonation, with flavors of tart cherries, dark chocolate, and some tropical fruit. Finish is semi-sweet, bourbon/coconut flavor with a slight sour cherry aftertaste. Happy to have tried this one-time brew.

Quite exceptional. Aroma has oak and cherry. A black beer, nothing special about the appearance. Complex flavor with some malt, cherry, only a little brett character, and the most oak flavor I have ever tasted in a beer. Sour, but not as sour as a lambic or flemish red. The flavor is best when slightly chilled.

Draft. Black beer with a light tan head. Cherry and chocolate aroma. Very cherry flavor. Slight tartness and oak. Malty, slight chocolate, whiskey takes a back-seat to cherries. Medium body. Lingering tart cherries. Nice and drinkable, but a lot of cherries.

Many thanks to wetherel for shipping out a growler in our recent trade. Truly a phenomenal beer. Intense oak on the nose with a hint of tart cherries, but not overwhelmingly whiskeyish. The flavor had that green oak flavor that Jack Daniels barrels seem to impart in beer but in this case it was nicely tempered by the sour cherry flavor. A little more whiskey character in the body, but not overwhelming. I would love to see this in large format bottles - well worth cellaring for a few years to see what happens.

Draft at Tom Nickel’s O’Brien’s. Very very roasty flavor. Lots of chocolate and hints of dark cherry on the aromas. Very black pour with a nice dark tan head. Flavors were much more sour than the aromas had me expecting. Sour cherry and sour wood flavors were prominate with some roasty middle and aftertastes. Pretty tasty version of the Captain Stout.

On tap at Obrien’s on 8/3/2007. I didn’t think it would be here until Monday, so this was a real pleasant surprize! Pours with a thick creamy two finger head that dies to a thin blanket of microbubble goodness that never dies. Good served on CO2, but it would have been great to see on nitrogen (or even better nitrous oxide, N2O!). The taste is primarily dry. Has a small amount of sweetness and a small amount of cherry sourness. Mellow and easy to drink. They have growlers at the brewery, maybe I should pick one up.

On tap@O’Brien’s: Jet black with a wisp of tan foam in the shape of a halo. Nose is coffee, chocolate, cherry. Flavor starts with cherry followed by some chocolate then some light tartness and a semi-dry, lightly sour finish with a hint of licorice in the aftertaste. Light body is smooth with soft carbonation.

This is a great beer. The Alpine stout has been improved. Amazing flavors of sour cherries, deep dark bitter chocolate, some port wine, and whiskey flavors. Amazing!!!