Quick Sips: Weyerbacher Sierra milk stout (Brewer's Select Series)

Weyerbacher is one of my favorite Pennsylvania breweries, which is saying a lot since it is a state loaded with great beer makers. In addition to great regular offerings like Double Simcoe IPA, Merry Monks (one of the finest tripels made in America), and Heresy, an oak-aged imperial stout, they also have a very limited Brewer's Select Series. These beers are only available at their brewery, so good luck getting your hands on one. If you happen to find yourself there for a tour, though, be sure to see what the latest beer in this series is.

This particular brew is Sierra, a small batch milk stout. I really love milk stouts, and this one is (actually, was; Sierra is no longer available) a great example of the style. It's got the creamy body you expect from a milk stout, with a mild but noticeable roasted coffee nose. Very full-bodied but drinks easily, quite smooth with nice sweetness. If this is an example of what Weyerbacher does with their Brewer's Select Series, I'd love to try more of them.

Quick Sips: Dogfish Head Chicory Stout

Dogfish Head is best known for doing really unusual beers. That makes them a somewhat divisive brewery, but it's also why I like them. When you get a beer from Dogfish Head, you're likely to be getting a beer unlike anything else out there ... and that's pretty cool.

One of their few "normal" beers is their winter seasonal, Chicory Stout. This is a pretty straightforward stout -- at 5.2% ABV it's also one of Dogfish's weakest beers -- that takes a turn for the unsusual thanks to the addition of roasted chicory, organic Mexican coffee, St. John's Wort and licorice root. The result is a very drinkable dry stout with just enough going on to make it stand out from the pack.

The nose is rich Mexican coffee, very roasty, like a handful of oily black coffee beans spilling from your hands. There are hints of chocolate and coffee throughout the taste, yet oddly, very little sweetness. Instead it has a sharp, coffee-like bitterness. This beer has a dry finish. They don't call this a coffee stout, but that's what it is. A roasted rich (and delicious) coffee stout.

Chicory Stout is on shelves right now, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it if you enjoy stouts. Grab it while you can, as this beer is only released once each year

Quick Sips: Samuel Adams the Vixen, Chocolate Chili Bock

I absolutely love this beer. Too bad it was a small batch that may or may not be available in the future. Samuel Adams, the biggest craft brewery in the United States and one of the pioneers of the American craft beer movement, recently launched their Small Batch Series of limited run beers. Of the four initial beers in this series, this one is the most offbeat and, in my opinion, the best.

And yes, you read the name right. This is a chocolate chili bock made with chilies, cocoa nibs, and cinnamon.

You might see "cinnamon" and "chili peppers" and think this beer will be a spicy mess, but think again. Both are here only just enough to counter the gooey sweetness of the chocolate. Stick your nose in the glass -- a wine glass is good for this beer -- and you'll think it's dessert. The spicy additions, however, blend nicely with the chocolate and counter the sweetness.

What impresses me is how well balanced the various elements are. The cocoa/chocolate is perfectly complemented by the chili and cinnamon. None of the three take over, which is, in my opinion, what makes it so good. Nothing here screams "CHOCOLATE BEER!" or "CHILI BEER!" Nothing extreme, just a good blend of flavors. I like a great chocolate beer (Southern Tier's Choklat, for example) and enjoy a nice chili/pepper beer (I've recently enjoyed Left Hand's Pepper Porter and Stone's outstanding 11.11.11), but it's the fine balance between the two that makes this one work.

Highly recommended. If you see it on the shelves, give it a try.

Quick Sips: 21st Ammendment Fireside Chat

Winter beers are a great tradition. I was first introduced to them by Samuel Adams Winter Lager, which was (to me) a long time ago. That's because I'm getting old.

Anyway, holiday ales tend to be spiced with traditional winter spices like cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, ginger, and others.

Fireside Chat is 21st Amendment's take on a winter beer. (I previously reviewed their Hop Crisis.) And it's jammed with winter spices. Pour it and the aroma is like gingerbread cookies and those thick holiday breads you can never eat much of and dark candy malts.

But the big feature here are those spices. Major spices. So many spices that they just wash through your mouth and cleanse them of all other tastes. There is nutmeg and probably cinnamon and other “wintry” tastes. Honestly, it borders on being a little over the top.

This was an interesting beer, but I hesitate to recommend it unless you enjoy something really offbeat. To me it tasted like a Christmas cake washed down in root beer. Glad I tried it, but probably wouldn't get it again.

HOMEBREWING: Behold my glorious new toy

That, my friends, is a five-gallon oak whiskey barrel from the Balcones Distillery in Waco, Texas. Pop the bung open and the sharp aroma of whiskey hits you right in the face. This saw use for two batches of Rumble before being retired and ending up in my hands.

Why would I want a whiskey barrel? That's easy. So I can stick a big, hefty imperial stout inside it for a couple of weeks. It will pick up oak and whiskey notes and turn into something (hopefully) amazing. Big whiskey barrel-aged beers like KBS aka Kentucky Breakfast Stout are some of the favorites of beer geeks everywhere, including me. After making a few stouts and barleywines for the barrel, I'll probably try my hand at brewing my first sour beer, which I'll age in the barrel for at least a year.

Should be some fun ahead. I can't wait.