Beer – #966 – Deep Creek – Neptune
Deep Creek Neptune. A jazzed up Stout. I know the brewer, and he was quite enthusiastic about this, and it’s been in the fridge for too long. When I say jazzed up I mean of course Whiskey barrel aged, only briefly for 3 months though. Also being Vinyl Sunday I’ve got something unusual on the Vinyl, not vintage at all, but from 2016 – something post punk, weirdly though it’s not on Spotify, so you can’t sing along.
supersized
This 500ml bottle of a 2016 vintage beer that is 8.5% ABV, contains around 250 calories a serve size, and 3.4 standard drink units in NZ.
Brewed by Deep Creek Brewing Co This on is in the style that is Imperial Stout
Auckland, New Zealand
enough to make a mermaid blush
We took our Russian Imperial Stout and supersized it by ageing in ex-whisky barrels for three months.
Vanilla and oak character on the nose, along with a sizeable measure of whisky. Dark fruit, tobacco and leather round out the aroma.
So, What could possibly go wrong?
Chocolate, or that dark roasted malt aroma on opening.
Pour is of course dark stout, and it’s a big head that forms, and a big lasting head that is deep brown onto that pitch black beer. Aroma though is somewhat elusive and muddled I can’t really be picking anything out from that. The roasted milk chocolate burnt thing though that’s there.
Taste though is deep, delicious, tasty lasted complex simple dark. Bitterness is well balanced with the softer sweetness of this. You can pick the Whisky notes easily but they add to and are not the whole thing of the beer, but remembering that this whiskey forward so is really the dominance in the glass.
Sweetness from somewhere keeps this in balance and check, but there isn’t a lot of doubt that this has been near Whiskey.
Nice, very nice, a great stout made greater I thought. Then as this warms the whisky really begins to full out and take over somewhat, adding that edgy roughness in the drinking, that wasn’t quite expected, but then I’m a bit naïve perhaps, for me it becomes a bit smokey.
But it was the end of the glass, and I was smiling and enjoying the post-punk music, which frankly was a bit more pop than I was might have liked, over produced and polished. Punk, now there’s something that was hijacked….
The pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 9 of its things from the thing. Yes it is whiskey forward in the aroma, but there is a lot of softness and sweetness in this that makes it quite the manageable drink. Whisky comes through at the right amount in balance to the softness and sweetness. a beer that made me smile.
The double dip review
- Where did I get it? Liquorland had some, but I saw them at the pub too.
- Am I enjoying it? Yes
- Would I have another? Yes
- Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? I would it’s probably best at the end of an evening, the whiskey is very apparent in this really, but it says on the label. Looks awesome and hides the alcohol well.
Music for this: ” Wire ” and ” Change Becomes us” which I have on Vinyl, and the album it’s not on Spotify, so if you’re keen there is a later album on Spotify here
Wire are an English rock band, formed in London in October 1976.
I have no idea but post-punk seems a stretch, this is more like “The Police’ or “Flock of Seagulls” than punk, but then, in music, as in many things, I’m not an expert.
IMPERIAL STOUT
Imperial stouts are usually extremely dark brown to black in color with flavors that are intensely malty, deeply roasted and sometimes with accents of dark fruit (raisin, fig) or milk sourness. The bitterness is typically medium and often the low sie of that. Imperial stouts are strong and often exceed 8% by volume.
A life just as ordinary 