A special occation as the better half passes the 5000 mark on Untappd, demands a special beer. What’s better than this legendary, sought-after 2020 version of Alaska’s pride, Anchorage? That’s right: A deal with none other than the horned one himself. Expectations have long ago sky rocketed with regards to this one, and it’s a matter of hopefully validating the already established fact- that this is a King amongst Barley wines.

Beautiful, simplistic esthetics, waxed can. Thick and oily running down the glass, leaving a rather small head. Aromas I’m getting is a vivid huge spectre that spans from ripe plum and deep high quality red wine, to paralyzing oaky notes. Already know this is gonna be sick right by now.

The thickness builds a perfect fundament, Sweet burning sensation. Dark, figs and dried fruit- heavy raisin-driven. There’s even a slight touch of carbonisation in here. Hints of Sweet caramel/toffee. Heat in bottom, heavy Sweet and a little sour mouth coating that’s close to everlasting. Perfection in style! I did expect that actually, but still left gobsmacked by the outstanding quality of this magnificisent work. Goddamn! This is absolutely amazing. So happy to even taste this brew. Top notch!

Photo: M.K. Burheim

Black and mystical visually, quite fruity nose with clear references to roasted coffee beans. Almost like your morning coffee actually. It ain’t until the first swag that you’ll go furter into this dark matter and find the next level.

Great carbonisation, distinct coffee hits you first, enhanced with bourbon, nuts and oaky layers, before a very bitter finish- and a suitable heat stemming from the alcohol. There is sooo much coffee taste in here that it is incredible! Unholy goodness. And not unlike the regular KBS version, the smooth mouth-coating feel is great, even though the bitterness clearly cuts through here.

Another great beer from these masters of black brews.

Photo: M. K. Burheim

As one would with such a hyped item, this beer has been looked forward to consuming a long time. Being one of the pretty difficult ones to get hold off out there, expectations are high when pouring this deep murky yellow perfection in the gloss. Aromas of citric fruits, piney notes and mango strikes the nose instantly, all the way from can into glass. Powerful indeed!

Murky-looking, perfectly carbonated, fresh albeit broad and bold, this masterpiece first teases the palate with a swift sweet brush, before all hell breaks loose- cause that is indeed what happens here. I mean sure, yeah- it’s an incredible double IPA, but the grip that the stingy hop has on the tastebuds cannot be described along anything else than stormy, yet still evolving. It’s one of the best examples of how this style’s mastery can be: Complex, all over the place, multi-dimensional and violent to the palate… Completely insane.

Looong after the swig, it keeps on stinging the back of my tongue, like a swarm of miniature hop-bees, ravaging. And several minutes after, it’s slowly fading out, with a sweet fruity  touch closing. This was actually worth the wait. Supreme.

Photo: M. K. Burheim

Perhaps not the style that Associated style this brilliant brewery is known for, but none the less; what we have here is an esthetic, deep red berlinerweisse. Pours a beautiful light head in glass, mild nose of red fruits and berries.

Like a light fruitpunch, in contrary to the typhical smoothie-like sours. Superb texture even though so light.

Taste is mild for a split second, before evolving into a fruit-layered, intense Berrytrip. Boysenberries are most distintively active here. It all works very well for this style. Lightbodied, great carbonisation.

Aftertaste is lightly acidic, swiching in between that and sweet hints. Brilliant.

Photo: M.K. Burheim

Why not make it a fully fledged run? Up for grabs is the last version for the eve. For those whom have followed the previous blogs of mine this month, will know that I’m prone to like such beers as this. Still- whether the different characteristics comes into play in a mantionworthy way, is yet to be discovered…

Nose is clearly Bourbon-dominated, with a very, very slight twist of burnt coffee. As for taste, it’s just too smooth to believe. Where one would think that the most boozy of them all (and the most bourbon-ish one of them) would be the the roughest when it comes to edgyness, it’d just not so. Pure silk, little carbonisation (nitro), long sweet taste, with coffee entering midway, but only mildly so. The sour mash bourbon taste is distinctly there, albeit not accompanied by the heat.  It’s just unbelivably smooth.

Incredible. Only my personal note here (I won’t allow my self to rate it lower than the previous two: I prefer them, but they’re all superior. If you get a chance to try either one: Go for it!

Photo: M. K. Burheim

Another one to go from these Bourbon barrel-aged series from Modern Times. Whilst we already know that their stouts prolly are heavy, complex and amazing (not the first time I try one of theirs), I’m exited about this, contrary to the vanilla & coffee version.

Nose is  still vanilla, and less Bourbon than it’s precedessor. And more coffee features.

First off: It’s sweet- even though not as much as the previously mentioned one. A tad more bitter, with massive presence of coffee this time around. Super balanced, and with a suitable, mildly sweet introduction (much emphazised by the almonds), extremely silky smooth coating. Then, striking heat entering after a long break, like 7-8 seconds in. Very dry finish. Stunning as expected.

The aftertaste is mainly coffee and heat, whilst the almonds are still there. Wow. I can’t find the foundation to critizise it/rate it lower than the vanilla one- this sinply a stunningly good imperial stout, yet once again flawless.

Photo: M. K. Burheim

OMG. These guys. Not only am I familiar with them, but when I visited their San Diego venue approx. a month ago, I close to OD’d on their awesome brews… Despite that particular beer-infused eve, the associations that comes to mind are positively dominated: They know stouts. (And hazy IPA’s, for that matter)

On the table today is one of their Devil’s teeth-series. A rather strange coloured can, reminiscing more of one of Paris Hilton’s purses than a hardcore stout, to be honest. Wolf in sheep clothes? I bet. Let’s find out!

Visuals: Black tar-like. Nose is heavily boozy, Bourbon-fronted. Smell is smooth. Diving in…

With X-mas time just around the corner, there’s the Season for some heavy-weight’ers, including some motor-oil stouts like this one. And even in good company, I must say it keeps up; Carbonisation still there, lurking subtly in the back. Distinct supersmooth, oaky whisky-notes, draped in chocolaty layers that dances teasingly around on the palate. Subtle coffee-notes comes in midway here. Fullbodied. Long lasting heat drives this one, all the way to and throughout the aftertaste. Exceptional and phenomenal beer. Goddamnit. Modern Times knows my weak spots, it seems.

I can’t find nothing that pulls it down here. Superb!

Photo: M.K. Burheim

Already on the roll, why not have another one? This time, their Mettle-series. More correctly, the Heavy one. With a nice, light head topping the golden-yellow beverage, I explore the nose here. Quite subtle, but there’s some light sweet sommerly fruity notes here.

With regards to taste, it must be said that the carbonization provides great amount of freshness to it. At first, a hoppy sting attaches to the palate. Then sweet, very subtle caramelish hint emerges, before blossoming in a furthermore sweet fruit middle, all the while underlined by a distinct hoppy sting.

The bitterness becomes full circle in the aftertaste, like a deadly scorpio clinging on till your final breath. Almost too much, I feel all numb now… RIP, dear palate. You’ve served me well throughout the years.

Photo: M. K. Burheim

Always exciting to try a new from these guys, although it might be hit & miss sometimes. And rightly so: This one seems very promising from start. Deep yellow colour and puré’ish consistency, this hop-juice promises a lot, and then some…

Fragrancy is first and foremost fruity notes of mango, mixed with sweet hints of vanilla, but also exciting piny hints. So present, it hits the nose from far away. As for taste, the layers are even more distinct, overlapping each other in what sums up in an explosive, creamy palate-fest. It starts off with citra fruit, before taking a turn to a honey’ish sweet layer, before concluding on a high note of bitter hops, that escalates & lingers into the aftertaste. Loooong lasting.

Stunningly delicious, the bunch @ Trillium does it again, whipping up a top-notch DIPA next to very few, if none.

In all fairness: Having just been through “Triple Nelson Daydream” from Other Half, which was a very very good beer, expectations could’ve been lower, mildly put (almost unfair to not mention: I’d give it the same rating as this one… but already consumed).

Word on the street is huge. Having been around a couple of them now (and then some), I am awakened by the incredibly fruity nose here. It’s indeed summery. Peach, mango and mandarines… and moreover, vanilla comes to mind. The presence is stunningly beautiful like a good hazy NEIPA should be, the head is creamy and depth colour-wise. Enough chit chat- what does it taste like, this thing?

First associations is freshness. There’s good carbonation going on, vibrant but subtle fruity, hoppy notes. But midway a sweet layer, but what really makes this one strong is that clean, bitter sting before rounding off with a fruity end. Slowly fading into nothingness, after a lengthy aftertaste. There’s very little to improve here, that’s for sure.

Very f’ing good.

Photo: (*TheEvenMoreDelicious) M.K. Burheim