Big, Extreme, Imperial and even Leviathan-like

Today’s “Beer to Drink While Posting” Is:
Rock Art (Vt.) Brewery’s IPA (II) Double IPA

One of the things you never really notice until you start drinking craft-brewed beer is the alcoholic content of your beer. It’s beer, right? Drink more than one an hour and you start to get drunk. What’s more to know?

Take Budweiser and Michelob, for instance. Smooth, easy-to-drink (unless you don’t like the taste any more) and 5 percent alcohol. Miller Genuine Draft? It’s at 4.66, and the dreaded “Natty Ice” is 5.9 percent. Guinness (the tall can) is 4.2.

OK, so those are some numbers, and to be honest, many craft beers are right down there with them. But there are a number of movements afoot in the craft-brewing industry, and for several years there has been a move to push for “Imperial” beers, which basically means “high alcohol” beers. They are referred to as “Big Beers.

In fact, a number of craft breweries have separate series for their higher-alcohol beers. Smuttynose Brewing Co, in Portsmouth, NH simply calls its series the Big Beer Series,” and it includes a barleywine, a wheat wine and an IPA that range from 9 to 11 percent. (The measure is also called ABV or alcohol by volume.). There are other beers in the series, including an excellent Farmhouse Ale, which are down in the 7 percent range.

By the way, despite the name, barleywines and wheat wines are beers.

Stone Brewing from California is also at the forefront, pushing strong beers past 10 percent. These include Old Guardian Barleywine, Double Bastard Ale, Imperial Russian Stout, and Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout (a recent and very happy experience). Some of the Stone beers, including Old Guardian, are released on a yearly basis, which each release being different from the others.

While the Big Beer and Stone beers – along with others -- have been around a good bit, Harpoon Brewery in New England is debuting its “Leviathan” series with a kicked-up version of the Triticus Wheat Wine that was one of the stars of its 100 Barrel series. This beer was designed by Jason and Todd Alstrom, the co-founders of my favorite beer site, www.beeradvocate.com, and the publishers of Beer Advocate magazine. The original Triticus – a personal favorite – was 11.4 ABV, but for the Leviathan series, it’s been pushed to 14 percent. Unfortunately, it is only available on draft and is released in a limited area that includes Boston and Windsor, Vt. The rest of the series will come out in 22-ounce bombers, the standard for many of the big beers.

Southern Tier from Lakewood, N.Y., is one of the great underappreciated breweries. They have done an Imperial series for a long time. Beers in that series., which has a range to 8 to 10 ABV, include my all-time favorite pumpkin beer – Pumking – as well as the obligatory Barleywine, a Wheat Ale, a Red Ale, a cherry saison and a Helles. These are all limited releases.

Southern Tier also has a Blackwater Stout series that is excellent and includes four beers at this point – an Oatmeal Stout, a Coffee Stout, a Chocolate Stout and a really intriguing Crème Brulee Milk Stout (think vanilla) that was part of the genesis for this post. These range from 10 to 12 ABV.

Rock Art Brewing, which has limited distribution in the Northeast, also has an “Extreme” beer series and also features a 10-percent ABV barleywine called “The Vermonster.” Yes, today’s posting beer is from the Extreme series. It’s a good, solid Double IPA at 8 percent. Not painfully hoppy, nor is there a strong taste of alcohol. It’s tasty and does not have the soapy aftertaste you sometimes get with this style.

There are many others to look at, but the last one I will mention is the Pompier, from Pennichuck Brewing Co. in Milford, NH. It is an English Style barleywine aged in oak whisky barrels. It’s an excellent beer and comes in a swing-top one liter bottle and checks in at 12.1 percent. A “pompier,” as the label tells us, is a person who works at the fire brigade.

These beers are very different and are a challenge for even experienced craft beer drinkers. You also have to consider that a bomber of an 11-percent beer has more alcohol than four cans of Budweiser. Be careful with these. I generally drink them at home or have no more than one or two in a bar. Many establishments serve this in half-servings because of the alcohol.