Westbrook Brewing Cap'n Skoon's Ballistic Stout: This is one of the beers I received from Fitze55 which he was most proud of. This is the beer brewed up for their Second anniversary at the end of last year. It poured dark with a little head that was dark tan and dense that lingered. For those who have had Alaskan's Smoked Porter, the same type of smoke flavor from that I was picking up in the Westbrook, but with a thick blanket of bitter dark chocolate covering. Coffee was barely noticeable, as were some fruity flavors in the backgrounds that I could find. The alcohol was noticeable, but the brewers did a great job of making this highly drinkable and delicious. It is a shame this was brewed once as it would be a great offering for them to keep producing. I saw a link somewhere earlier today to a top 25 list and Westbrook was #11 or 12 on the breweries they say are up and coming for this year. I will vouch for that claim of advancing themselves, along with hoping they succeed in doing great things this year.
Founders Backwoods Bastard: This was another beer I received from Fitze55, and my only offering I have had from Founders. I was feeling good from the other beer at this point so we turned on Eddie Murhpy's Raw stand up and relaxed with this beer. The bastard poured dark red/amber with no real head to speak of. It was chilled when I poured it and the first sip I had a physical reaction to the overwhelming alcohol flavor. I was not expecting it to be strong, no clue why that was, and then looked at the bottle to see it is 10.2%. Yeah it had that very strong warming feeling that heated up my whole pallet. The tastes of sweetness was the most prominent thing and I was unable to break apart what exactly I was tasting. I let this sit in the glass for about 10 minutes on the table to breathe and warm up before I tried again. Everything changed at this point, like night and day changed. It was much easier to consume when it was warmer and had much better flavor. The sweetness was still prominent, but it became diverse with the sweetness of bourbon, cherries, Carmel, and more were leaping out at me. The beer is very strong in alcohol, but thin and highly drinkable when it has warmed up. I wish bourbon aged beers didn't come off tasting so boozy, but that is just how the style is. This beer is freaking delicious, and paired nicely with one of my favorite stand up skits.