Cow Fight: Moo Thunder VS Double Bag

      Everyone Knows that cows are vicious animals always looking for a good scrap.  Just work with me here.  Due to the violent and unpredictable nature of cows, I thought I would take some cow themed beers and have them fight to the finish.  First up is Butternuts Moo Thunder, truly a fear some name, versus Long Trail Double Bag.  A fearsome name for a different reason.  What guy doesn't fear ending up with a double bagger.  Thunder is a farmhouse stout and Bag is a strong ale.  Let's begin with, Thunder versus, The Bag.
      The Bag struts out citrus herb hop through to the finish, and caramel, jam, honey and a hint of yeast.  The flavors are nice, but what sets apart The Bag is it's big full body.  That almost syrupy thickness that feels so nice in the mouth.  Next up is Thunder with a heap of vanilla, some mocha and a bit of that earthy farmhouse flavor.  Very nice, but Thunder has the body of Stephen Hawking.  Very weak for a stout.  The Bags substantial flavors and powerful body sweep away the stout flavors with but a sip.  Another pull on Thunder brings its flavors to the fore.  The Bag is strong, it stomps on the puny  Moo Beer.  Bag Crush.
      The Thunder on it's own might have been pretty good, the flavors are nice.  It just was like water next to Double Bag.  The bag has everything, flavor, crisp hop, body, balance and most importantly, lots of alcohol.  The Bag reigns triumphant.

Heavy Seas Siren Noire

      Oh,  Heavy Seas you produce such good beers,HERE and then utterly undrinkable garbage, HERE and HERE.  So to get back to just mediocre they need a winner.  Of course,  Imperial Chocolate Stout, sounds like a winner to me.  Noire, of course, pours out black as night with a staggering amount of chocolate on the nose.  There's nice hop bite all around strong chocolate and mocha flavors. This has a heavy body with a buttery quality to it.  The chocolate flavors have amazing depth and quality. I could see how some would complain that it's not that beer like, being more alcoholic chocolate.  I would disagree, I think there's enough hop here to bring it into the realm of beer.  I loved Young's Double Chocolate Stout, but this is way better.  This is great, the chocolate lover will adore this.  One of my favorites,  although this is not an easy drinking beer, more a dessert.

Mendocino Oatmeal Stout

      This will be the last of the Winter beers for this year.  It sure has been taxing for me to have to plow through these 44, for the most part, Delicious beers.  But, before we get to the final lists, one last beer to go.  This Oatmeal Stout is from the people at Mendocino, who are much warmer than me.  This stuff pours out impressively black, even the head is really dark.  The nose is a bit weak with caramel and mocha.  But the flavor is rich with mocha which turns into a powerful coffee flavor.  Tis rich and creamy with nice body, and packed with flavor.  I like this beer quite a bit although its fairly simple.  But that's not always a bad thing.  A very solid stout that is well deserving of a place on the nice list.  On to the lists.

Buffalo Bill's Blueberry Oatmeal Stout

       Buffalo Bill's makes some unique stuff.  Last we visited them was their entry in the Spring Beer Tournament, Orange Blossom Cream Ale, which quickly exited.  But, I like blueberry beers, they have become a solid style.  It pours out black with a massive blueberry nose with a hint of herb.  The flavor is dominated by fresh blueberry, and mocha with a nice tingly hop.  The finish adds a little coffee and herb with your blueberry.  The body is O.K. , but a tad weak for an oatmeal stout.  If you like blueberries and stout, this is amazing.  The blueberry really tastes of fresh berries.  I can't say that it's really a Winter Beer, but it's so good it has to be in the top ten.  I love this beer.

Pike Stout

Boy, I have been a big fan of the Pike beers I have had so far. I sure hope this is another winner it looks right up my ally. It pours out black as pitch and has a strong bitter black coffee nose with a touch of mocha and hop. Wow, this stuff has very, very strong flavors. Tons of, I mean TONS of very bitter coffee flavor. At first I thought they were killing this beer with hops, but I think the malts are so darkly roasted, that its off the charts bitter. There's a really smoky, burnt flavor here, but not in a good way. You could taste this for hours in your mouth. I love big, bold flavors and I love coffee, but this is just too much. You can't even discern the 7% alcohol. You probably could not tell, until later, if it was double that. I would call this a failure as it's nearly undrinkable, but it fails in the direction of being too bold and I'll give them props for that. Skip it.

Highland Black Mocha Stout

The last of our North Carolina beers, for now, is Highland's Black Mocha Stout. This stuff pours out pretty close to black. There is a strong fresh coffee and mocha nose. The flavor is strong on the mocha up front with hop bitter floating around the edges. Hop seems a bit light. The finish is strong on the straight coffee, not mocha, and it lingers. This is pretty malty, but I'd give it a medium body. I really like this beer, it's amazing they got all this coffee flavor just out of dark roasted malts. Of course a taste for coffee is a bit mandatory here. I find more to enjoy in this beer as I continue to rapidly pour it down my throat. This brewery has come up strong after the lousy oatmeal porter, they are 2 for 3. The last sip is fantastic, I shall replace my morning coffee with this beer, and so should you.

Highland

Young's Luxury Double Chocolate Stout

Not just content to go black, I,m going double dark, with Young's Luxury Double Chocolate Stout. This is an ale with real dark chocolate added. This pours a lovely dark brown at least as dark as the Xingu, I held it up to the light as well. As you would expect, the nose is a flood of chocolate that lingered well after I put the glass down. This is a stunningly creamy and delicious beer. There is a massive bittersweet chocolate flavor that lingers on the palate a long time. Eventually, you get the a little of the hop and a mellow smoky flavor on the finish. The whole lengthy experience of taking a sip is a shifting kaleidoscope chocolate flavors. The body on this stuff is surprisingly weak for a beer of this depth. I also find that after the minutes long finish you get a bit of weird bitterness in the mouth, but this is easily cured by continuing to drink.
I absolutely cannot conceive of a food item this would go with, it's flavors are so strong. But, I'll try popping milk chocolate almond bar in my mouth and see if like goes with like. Nope, the stout totally overwhelmed it. You could just treat it as a dessert in of itself. This beer is extremely impressive, but obviously you have to like chocolate a little. I'm not the biggest fan of chocolate but I'm a big fan of this beer.
This ends, for now, the showdown between white beers and black beers. The Allagash was the best of the whites but it couldn't hold a candle to either of these black beers. So in the end the blacks totally dominate. Kind of like an NBA game or a boxing match.