{"id":1745,"date":"2010-10-06T09:00:50","date_gmt":"2010-10-06T14:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/?p=1745"},"modified":"2021-08-26T11:42:54","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T16:42:54","slug":"great-lakes-blackout-stout-vertical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/great-lakes-blackout-stout-vertical\/","title":{"rendered":"Blackout Breakdown! 3 Years of Great Lakes Stout Goodness"},"content":{"rendered":"
“Are you ‘The Guys?!'”<\/p>\n
We grinned and responded, “that’s us,” at Cliff Eihnorn, co-owner of the Twisted Spoke<\/a> in Chicago, approached us from behind the bar.\u00a0 A week ago we didn’t know Cliff.\u00a0 We knew his bar, quite well actually<\/a>, but we didn’t know him.\u00a0 So how did we get from being total strangers to sharing a Great Lakes Blackout Stout three year vertical with the guy?\u00a0 Well it’s kind of a long story, you see my cousin’s barber works down the street fro…who am I kidding – it was through Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n After seeing they had Blackout Stout on tap we jokingly responded that we would be by at some point and might smuggle in a bottle of ’09 from the cellar for a side-by-side comparison.\u00a0 Cliff, although we didn’t know it was him at the time, shot back with, “Let me know when and I’ll add an ’07 for a proper vertical.”<\/p>\n I haven\u2019t had a view of such Stout-y Richness since Ryan dragged out the full growler of KBS<\/a> or our trip to the Sheffield\u2019s Goose Island event where we completely overdosed on Bourbon County Stout<\/a>. Before us was practically a tic-tac-toe board of Blackout Stout ranging from \u201807 to fresh on draft, and there would be no cat\u2019s game to be had. \u00a0We all won.<\/p>\n <\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n In terms of taste, the \u201810 starts off with a medium level of bitterness with a smell of coffee, which backs off quickly to a lingering flavor of raisin. \u00a0The nose matched the flavor but the scent backed off as quickly as the head of the beer, leaving nothing but taste behind. \u00a0The body isn\u2019t huge, which was the most surprising part of this stout – GLBC brews heavy beers, and maybe they\u2019re saving all their syrupy thickness for Nosferatu, but the Blackout was damned light for a stout, and you could quite easily pound down a couple with no real effort. \u00a0More on that shortly.<\/p>\n Also: A benefit of doing a vertical at a restaurant\/bar with near endless glassware? \u00a0No reusing glasses, no rinsing, just row after row of beer pours. \u00a0The not-immediately-obvious benefit to this, is that we didn\u2019t have to finish off each year before we moved onto the next. \u00a0We got a good handle on each year, then could go back and dance from year to year to do a real palate head-to-head. \u00a0This will prove to have been a gamechanger in this vertical, as well as in verticals to follow, I guarantee.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The \u201809, served from a bottle, had (as mentioned) lighter lacing that dissipates quickly, the nose has more raisin and less coffee. \u00a0There was also a certain yeastyness or bready quality to the scent of the \u201809 stout that was absent from the fresh draft selection. \u00a0The \u201cwow\u201d moment to the \u201809 was in the body – if the fresh was lighter than I had expected, a year of age burned off an amazing amount of heft. \u00a0The lightness of the beer mixed with a light carbonation and a warmer flavor added up to a more complex and surprising result.<\/p>\n
\nWe kicked the whole thing off with a facefull of fresh draft Blackout. \u00a0If you ever happen to misplace your tongue and nose and need to tell a fresh Blackout from an aged one, just give it a swirl around the glass. \u00a0The \u201810, as evidenced by the photos, laces the hell out of the side of the glass with a healthy layer of milk-chocolate tan foam. \u00a0It also kept its head the longest, but all three beers very quickly burned back to pure black stout darkness.<\/p>\n