Beer of the Weekend #166: O'Fallon Smoke
Though this is not a personal first, it is a BotW first: a liquid lunch. The special today is O’Fallon Smoke, brewed by the O’Fallon Brewery of O’Fallon, Missouri. (The bottle label says Steven’s Point, Wisconsin. Weird.)
Unsure what beer to recommend for November in the LV, I made a beer run to Dirty John’s earlier today, enjoying the beautiful (but slightly warm) fall weather and colors on my walk. November does not fit as well within the autumn beer tradition as October, but it is not yet time for festive holiday/winter beers. It is between styles. However, November’s colder weather calls for darker beer, and I was thinking something smoked, like Schlenkerla’s Urbock; I wanted Thanksgiving in a bottle.
However, enter the help of Joe, a new beer guru at Dirty’s. Joe thought Schlenkerla’s Urbock or Weizen would make for an excellent November beer, but had a couple other recommendations. One of them was Smoke, and I brought a bottle home along with two other recommendations we settled on.
With such little time to decide before my Friday deadline (I need to taste the beer, write the review, drive around town to check availability, polish the review, and send it in) I decided to drink Smoke for lunch. Yummy.
Serving type: One 12-ounce bottle. There is a barely visible batch code printed on the neck (2180), but nothing I can find resembling a freshness date.
Appearance: Straight pour in a pint glass. The color is an opaque black; when I held it to my lamp, only the very bottom let a deep ruby tinted light pass through. Three fingers of thick, tan head developed and dissipated to leave a nice, cappuccino-like lacing. After finishing my only bottle, I noticed sedimentation stuck to the bottom, so I recommend rolling the bottle to finish the pour.
Smell: Very enticing dark chocolate, cocoa, and dark fruit (mostly plum). My mouth is watering. There is a slight hint of roasted coffee malts and a smooth and perfect smokiness emerges after the pint has sat for two or three minutes.
Taste: Mirrors the smell, but the flavors are weaker than their aroma counterparts because of a thin mouthfeel. I expect more body than this from stouts and porters. The roasted coffee dominates, pushing the dark chocolate to the backseat, and I cannot detect any dark fruit plum. A mellow, smoky backbone is present in each sip, complimenting the other favors.
Drinkability: Smoke is a solid brew. It is tasty and somewhat unique (to my knowledge) in the American stout/porter scene. As I said, the mouthfeel leaves me wanting, but the overall experience is very good.
Fun facts about O’Fallon Smoke:
-Style: O’Fallon lists it as a Smoked Porter, but BA classifies it as an American Porter:
-Price: $1.79/bottle at John’s Grocery in IC. It is also offered in sixers, but I obviously didn’t get one.
-Serving temperature: 45-50ºF.
-Alcohol content: 6 percent ABV.
-Food pairings: BA recommends barbecue, buttery cheeses (Brie, Gouda, Havarti, Swiss), chocolate and general chocolate dessert, and smoked or grilled meat.
-IBU: 24.
-Color: 29.5 SRM.
-According to the O’Fallon website, the grains used in Smoke are “63% Bamberg Smoked Malt, Pale, Caramel 90L, Chocolate, Black-White Wheat.” The hops used are “Chinook, German Hallertau Mittlefruh.”
The Quiet Man’s grade: B+.
Unsure what beer to recommend for November in the LV, I made a beer run to Dirty John’s earlier today, enjoying the beautiful (but slightly warm) fall weather and colors on my walk. November does not fit as well within the autumn beer tradition as October, but it is not yet time for festive holiday/winter beers. It is between styles. However, November’s colder weather calls for darker beer, and I was thinking something smoked, like Schlenkerla’s Urbock; I wanted Thanksgiving in a bottle.
However, enter the help of Joe, a new beer guru at Dirty’s. Joe thought Schlenkerla’s Urbock or Weizen would make for an excellent November beer, but had a couple other recommendations. One of them was Smoke, and I brought a bottle home along with two other recommendations we settled on.
With such little time to decide before my Friday deadline (I need to taste the beer, write the review, drive around town to check availability, polish the review, and send it in) I decided to drink Smoke for lunch. Yummy.
Serving type: One 12-ounce bottle. There is a barely visible batch code printed on the neck (2180), but nothing I can find resembling a freshness date.
Appearance: Straight pour in a pint glass. The color is an opaque black; when I held it to my lamp, only the very bottom let a deep ruby tinted light pass through. Three fingers of thick, tan head developed and dissipated to leave a nice, cappuccino-like lacing. After finishing my only bottle, I noticed sedimentation stuck to the bottom, so I recommend rolling the bottle to finish the pour.
Smell: Very enticing dark chocolate, cocoa, and dark fruit (mostly plum). My mouth is watering. There is a slight hint of roasted coffee malts and a smooth and perfect smokiness emerges after the pint has sat for two or three minutes.
Taste: Mirrors the smell, but the flavors are weaker than their aroma counterparts because of a thin mouthfeel. I expect more body than this from stouts and porters. The roasted coffee dominates, pushing the dark chocolate to the backseat, and I cannot detect any dark fruit plum. A mellow, smoky backbone is present in each sip, complimenting the other favors.
Drinkability: Smoke is a solid brew. It is tasty and somewhat unique (to my knowledge) in the American stout/porter scene. As I said, the mouthfeel leaves me wanting, but the overall experience is very good.
Fun facts about O’Fallon Smoke:
-Style: O’Fallon lists it as a Smoked Porter, but BA classifies it as an American Porter:
Inspired from the now wavering English Porter, the American Porter is the ingenuous creation from that. Thankfully with lots of innovation and originality American brewers have taken this style to a new level. Whether it is highly hopping the brew, using smoked malts, or adding coffee or chocolate to complement the burnt flavor associated with this style. Some are even barrel aged in Bourbon or whiskey barrels. The hop bitterness range is quite wide but most are balanced. Many are just easy drinking session porters as well.
-Price: $1.79/bottle at John’s Grocery in IC. It is also offered in sixers, but I obviously didn’t get one.
-Serving temperature: 45-50ºF.
-Alcohol content: 6 percent ABV.
-Food pairings: BA recommends barbecue, buttery cheeses (Brie, Gouda, Havarti, Swiss), chocolate and general chocolate dessert, and smoked or grilled meat.
-IBU: 24.
-Color: 29.5 SRM.
-According to the O’Fallon website, the grains used in Smoke are “63% Bamberg Smoked Malt, Pale, Caramel 90L, Chocolate, Black-White Wheat.” The hops used are “Chinook, German Hallertau Mittlefruh.”
The Quiet Man’s grade: B+.
Comments
Post a Comment