I have a problem and it's not drinking beer as soon as I get it sometimes. All my friends go "if I had a beer collection like you, it would have vanished years ago!" Well, lots of my stash I planned on eventually reviewing, some of it I was aging and some I just.. forgot. This time around I kept meaning to review it when I got it a long time ago but I just kept feeling the time just wasn't right. Well, after having a mildly oxidized bottle of Unibroue Terrible (that was still decent otherwise) the other day, I realized the present is better than waiting to finally open it.. because the beer could always go any way.The sampling I'm doing today is Bellwoods Brewery collaboration with Evil Twin Brewing for a Sour Stout called No Sleep Till Brooklyn. It's 9.2% ABV, bottled May 13, 2013 and is bottle 901 of 1563. What I'm doing today is seeing how a beer turns out after 12 years of being in my hoard... will it be good? Will it be a disaster? Or will it just be.. beer?
From the label: When our friend Jeppe of Evil Twin Brewing told us that he'd be passing through Toronto before the opening of Tørst in Brooklyn we decided to whip up a tasty collaboration beer to celebrate. Late last fall we pout a stout into barrels with a plethora of wee beasties - early this summer we extracted a delicious sour beer. Released simultaneously in Brooklyn and Toronto, No Sleep Till Brooklyn is the result of two cities, two breweries, and some hard working bugs.
Appearance: I got a very noticeable pssst sound as I opened the bottle so that's a very good sign.. so it likely isn't a lost cause. Pouring the beer, it actually has a decent amount of burnt caramel brownish head but of course it not being oh so fresh it fizzes away pretty quickly but there's still a bit of bubble action near the glass. The body itself is pretty much your regular every day stout - pitch black and completely opaque.
Aroma: No noticeable oxidation at all! My first impressions on the beer are that it has a mild sour red wine profile that's not overly aggressive but does tingle the nostrils just a bit. Then there's the stout, it gives off a bit of a roasty aroma to it with notes of chocolate and a hint of coffee.
Taste: With it being 9.2% I was expecting a bit of a boozy burn that I don't really end up getting.. but the ABV does sneak up on you ever so gradually. This stout is pretty much two beers mashed into one - a sour with a sour with notes of red wine and plum as well as a stout with notes of coffee, chocolate and a bit of peat for earthiness to it. This isn't a combination I recall ever trying before after the bajillion beers I've sampled over the years. As it warms up I get more of the stout-forward notes and the sour aspect is still showing up but a bit more subdued. Aftertaste is a hint of sourness and earthiness of peat.
Overall Thoughts: It's not fair to consider this a review so this is just me seeing how a beer aged over 13 years. It actually aged beautifully.. this is complex but very much inviting. The sour red wine-like notes are popping out in every sip but they're not making me pucker up at all. The stout aspect is rich, pretty heavy, sweet and roasted/chocolatey. I'm not a Sour fan but this kind of mash up I could get behind if other breweries did it. 13 years though.. who knew that it would work out well?! I sure didn't.
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