Mission Brewery - Dark Seas

YARGH! AHOY mateys!!

Um, oh. Sorry. Just enjoying my Wednesday Night with a new beer. A new beer? But of course! It's that time of the week. When we creep past the half way point and can see the sweet glimmer of the weekend in the distance.

So tonight I decided to pick up a beer I thought I'd consumed before but much to my surprise, I haven't. Tonight I'm drinking a beer by Mission Brewery in San Diego, I'm drinking their Dark Seas. A 9.8% abv Russian Imperial Stout. I love Russian Imperial Stouts and I love saying goodbye to the early part of the week, so let's crack this beast open and get some 9.8% RIS goodness in us.

Dark Seas pours out a completely pitch black. There is absolutely no light shining through this beer, much like the depths of the sea. There was about a half finger of a mocha head, bordering on a straight brown color. The initial appearance of this beer has me excited. It pours out thick and viscus like a Russian Imperial Stout should be. No watered down bullshit here. The head doesn't stick around for long and kind of leaves behind a lacing the resembles the white wash from a wave crashing on the shore. This is looking great. Let's get the nose.

The very first thing I get on this beer is plum and dark fruits. Surprise the back of the bottle makes mention of notes of plum and port. There's definitely a port character here. The plum and figs are very prominent here. I'm getting a nice creamy character behind the port as well. There's some nice cherry notes coming through as well. There's some chocolate in here too. Both milk chocolate and dark chocolate. It's pretty sweet smelling. There's a nice vanilla and coffee character coming through. I'd compare it to a vanilla latte. There's also a nice chocolate covered raisin note here too as I let it warm a little. This beer smells delicious. Time to drink up.

Right away there's a nice creaminess. I'm getting quite a bit of vanilla on the front of the tongue. That's immediately followed by a port/plum character that I picked up on the nose. The plum isn't as strong here but it's there. Middle of the mouth you get the milk chocolate characters, dark chocolate, kind of a roasted coffee flavor. It's incredibly smooth. Back end of this beer you get more sweetness and a bit of an espresso character. There's vanilla on every level of this stout along with those dark fruits and port notes. I'm getting more raisin characters as the flavors sort of subside. This is an incredibly easy drinking RIS. 9.8%, there's next to no alcohol here on the nose or tongue. It's masked very well.

So overall, Dark Seas is a really nice surprise. I didn't go into this beer expecting a ton. I had previously had a couple of Mission beers and thought they were average at best. But Dark Seas has definitely got my attention. I'd highly recommend checking this one out.

Rating: A

My wife has dubbed this beer "Dark Grossness" So... yep.

Clown Shoes - Blaecorn Unidragon

What's up everyone?! Did you miss me? That's ok, I didn't miss you much either. I spent my weekend drinking some good beers and watching quite a bit of hockey.

With that said, I almost forgot I had this incredibly named beer in my fridge. I figured, why not crack it open and get a review up. I don't want anyone to think I'd died or something!

So tonight I'm drinking the wonderfully named Blaecorn Unidragon by Clown Shoes (Mercury Brewing Co) out of Ipswich, MA. I'd heard things about their beers but had never seen one in the store. Much to my delight I came across this rare Unic...Unico... shit, Unidragon, and had to pick it up. I didn't know much about it but with a label that looks like something off a heavy metal album cover I just didn't care. I had to get this and drink it in the name of all things METAAAAAAAAL!!!!

Ok, so the first thing I noticed when actually reading up on this thing is the abv. 12.5%! This tells me a couple of things. One, this is going to be one strong ass beer! Two, I probably should have aged this for a bit. I thought this had a bottle on date but I guess I'm wrong. If it's there I'm looking right at it, but I'm fucking blind soo... pretty sure this is fairly fresh, maybe January.

Anyway, let's pour this beast out and get into it.

Unidragon pours out a pitch black. There's no light shining through this beer at all. It looks evil. Like a black Unidragon should. Honestly, I want to blast some Ronnie James Dio (RIP!) while I'm drinking this. There was about a finger of beige, bordering on mocha. The head didn't stick around very long and receded back into the beer leaving behind a spotted-like lacing. It looks pretty good. Lets get the nose on this one.

First thing I get on the Unidragon is a nice earthy hop note. It's pretty strong too. Nothing like an IPA but you definitely get some hop character. That's followed immediately by a chocolate character. Some roasted malts shining through right now as well. There's a bit of dark chocolate, maybe even some roasted espresso beans here. I'm getting a lot of a raisin character as well. It smells a lot like a bag of Raisinets. There some fig and date characteristics also. A nice sugary note as well. You do get a little bit of alcohol on the nose as well. 12.5% that's pretty much a guarantee though. I'm tired of waiting. Let's drink up!

Right away I get a milk chocolate sweetness. That's immediately followed up by that chocolate covered raisin character I got on the nose. It's nice and sweet and really pleasing. Middle of the tongue there's a nice hop bitterness and some roasted notes. Definitely from the malts that were used. I'm getting quite a bit of an espresso character here as well. There's a bit of alcohol coming through on the middle of the tongue. You definitely know this is a big beer. Back of the mouth you get a subtle tobacco character maybe even the slightest bit of leather. There's more chocolate sweetness and some date/fig action going on as well. This beer tastes really nice.

Overall, I'm really enjoying this beer. Blaecorn Unidragon is a solid Russian Imperial Stout. I'd definitely recommend checking it out if you can get it. I'd also recommend letting this age for a bit. I think with a year of age on this it'd be phenomenal. There's a bit more alcohol than I like on my stouts. It's not barrel aged so it's not a bourbon character unfortunately. The alcohol in no way ruins this beer. It's still really good, bordering on great in all honesty.

Rating: B+

Wife said it tastes like beer. Big fucking surprise.