We’ve all heard of “hygge” or “koselig” at this point, so we know we’re supposed to lean into the winter season. Make the most of it, you know? Bust out the blankets and long underwear. Start a fire in the fireplace. Carry around a mug of coffee or tea. Watch Gremlins while wearing a Die Hard-themed Christmas sweater. But this is also the season for big beers. Bold beers. Flavorful beers. And above all, boozy beers. If it’s not over 8%, what’s the point? You don’t get cozy drinking light lagers.
Last year, I bemoaned the death of the big brown bottle—a format perfect for the big boozy beers hygge asks us to drink in the depths of winter. Now, I find myself moving on from this curmudgeonly adherence to an unwieldy format. The reason is simple: More breweries are putting their big beers in cans and making them available outside their taprooms. I go where the winds of fate blow me. Allow them to blow you as well.
Fair State Brewing Cooperative: FSBC10
Imperial stout / 12.5% ABV / ?? IBU
This beer is the opposite of a “big brown bottle” beer. It’s actually a “tiny silver can” beer. Subverting expectations is decidedly in these days. When I saw this absurd little can on the shelf at Zipps Liquors, I said to myself, “What the fuck?” and then immediately following that, “I bet it’s delicious, though.” Drinking it was a similar experience. FSBC10 has a strong maple and vanilla aroma. It’s boozy, syrupy, and… lightly tart.
To be honest, my first couple sips left me wondering what the hell was going on. I pushed past my palate’s confusion, and I'm incredibly glad I did. I went into FSBC10 expecting something like Fair State’s Heckin’ Chonker (one of my favorite stouts of the last couple years), and got something much more complex. FSBC10 is a beer worth chewing on for a bit. You can find cans of this on the shelves at Zipps and Ombibulous, and I highly recommend you do so.
Boom Island Brewing Co.: Barrel-aged Omen
Belgian-style quadrupel / 8.8% ABV / 21 IBU
Minnetonka, man. What a place. It’s home to both Cargill and UnitedHealth Group, so Apollonia is probably glad to have not purified herself in its lake—there’s clearly corporate greed in the water. But, if the corporate greed makes it into Boom Island’s beers, well, that’s a risk I’m just going to have to take. They’re too dang delicious.
Barrel-aged Omen is a solid Belgian-style quadrupel aged in bourbon barrels (Four Roses barrels to be precise). I’d honestly never really considered a Belgian-style quad as a “bourbon barrel” style, though Barrel-aged Omen convinced me it’s a thing. The barrel character comes through strong, with a boozy bite over vanilla and complex Belgian-associated flavors of raisin and clove. I’d purify myself in these waters any day.
Little Thistle Brewing Co: Rampant
Wee heavy / 8% ABV / 20 IBU
I’ve been drinking a lot of Rochester-based Little Thistle’s stuff lately; they just keep knocking it out of the park. It’s getting to the point where I feel like I might need an excuse to visit Rochester so I can mosey on over to their taproom and hang out for a bit. They apparently have this wee heavey ale on beer engine (a specialized hand pump popularized in the U.K. for cask ales) right now, and knowing that fact makes me sad I've only experienced it out of a can. Beer engines are cool, and scratch the same part of my brain that keeps me buying vinyl in the era of instant access. If you’re in southeast Minnesota, please check it out and report back.
But don’t worry, fellow hipsters living somewhere other than Rochester, even out of a can, this is a very good beer. Rampant’s flavor is caramel and dark cherries with a boozy bite. It also has a light roastiness to it. Little Thistle mentions a bit of smoke—but if I had to describe it, I’d say it’s maybe a little peaty, but not particularly smoky. The result is very agreeable. Healthful, even.
Falling Knife: Big Riff
Imperial stout / 8% ABV / ?? IBU
A lot of people love Falling Knife for its Hazy IPAs. However, as good as those IPAs are, that really sells the brewery short. Every time I walk into their northeast Minneapolis taproom, I immediately scan the tap list for whatever isn’t hazy, a strategy that's been rewarded so often I have to remind myself to try their hazy IPAs, too. But it’s much harder to replicate this experience at home. The Falling Knife beers that see wider distribution tend to be hazy IPAs (with the exception of one of my favorite Minnesota light lagers, Tomm’s). So, you can imagine my delight when I found Falling Knife’s Big Riff, a “chocolate-covered peanut butter pretzel imperial stout” on the shelves at both Zipps Liquors and Ombibulous.
Big Riff tastes like sweet, smooth chocolate and dry-roasted peanuts. This peanut flavor is one I associate with actual peanuts or powdered peanut butter—which I much prefer to the peanut butter extract and artificial peanut flavors sometimes present in peanut butter flavored beers. But you know, I haven’t actually asked the folks at Falling Knife if I’m right about this. “Don’t look a gift peanut in the butter,” I always say. A light bitter roasty note on the end ties it all together nicely.
Pryes Brewing: Drops of Time
English barleywine / 11.1% ABV / 23 IBU
I decided to save the best for last. This year’s Drops of Time is a beer to write home about, and I sincerely hope Pryes continues this series going forward. Drops of Time is full of toffee, caramel, and booze. Lots of booze. It’s aged in rye and bourbon whisky barrels, giving it a really nice complex barrel flavor. It finishes slightly tart with an almost syrupy alcohol burn. After a few sips, it builds to a nice warm hug, which I feel like we could all use in times like these.
Drops of Time is a beer that my old philosophy of art professor Deane Curtin would likely be proud to hear me say is an experience. If you can track down a few cans of it, you’ll be rewarded for your effort.
