Furthermore beer

Last night a very generous friend invited me over to try out some of the brews available from Furthermore Beer, a Wisconsin-based brewery.  This was a treat, as it’s really only available in Wisconsin and Minnesota, giving these smuggled brews that extra air of rare mystery.  So we sat down with our illicit bounty and took a few notes along the way.  Read them!

Treasure from faraway lands! With great label art!

Fatty Boombalatty:  An easy-drinkin’ Belgian pale ale.  Like really easy drinking, as my cohort put it “I could have knocked down 5-6 like they were Miller High Life“.  AGREED.  Nothing too surprising, lightly citrusy and yeasty, Belgian stuff.  At 7.2%, these could be dangerous (in the best way possible).  

Make Weight: Easily our favorite of the whole bunch.  Complex, smooth and creamy, balanced out with just a little bit of bitter hops.  It’s hard to articulate everything that’s going on in this beer, but needless to say it is delicious, and that’s all you need to know.  My buddy likened it to a Scotch Ale, but I think I have to disagree, because I didn’t really pick up the smoky notes you tend to get with a Scotch ale (which can make it taste like a pork chop or worse). Like I said, our favorite, and the one we’d be most likely to murder a hooker for (you’d be surprised how often that choice is presented to me).  

Three Feet Deep: This was a surprising stout.  Lots of dry roasted chocolate flavor, but it was incredibly light.  It finishes dry and practically disappears.  I know this is going to sound like I didn’t like it, but it was like this beer didn’t have a “middle”, like the backbone had been taken out of it.  That said, I did enjoy it quite a bit and the light nature of it made it incredibly drinkable.  

Fallen Apple: An apple cider blended with a cream ale.  To be honest, I was kind of disappointed with it.  I guess I just expected more from it based on that description.  It ended up being a weak dry apple that tasted like watered-down apple juice.  It just didn’t have the richness of flavor I was expecting, so maybe my disappointment is based on my raised expectations.  My buddy said he’s still up in the air about it.  

Oscura: YES.  Probably the best coffee-flavored beer I’ve ever had.  A perfect blend of rich coffee flavors and a light, refreshing cerveza-style beer.  My friend said “I’ve tasted coffee beers before and most of them lean one way more than other“, and I couldn’t agree more.  Oscura nails the perfect balance of flavors, and light enough to enjoy several in a row, even in the summertime.  

Knot Stock: NO.  This is a beer with pepper in it.  Like salt-and-pepper black pepper.  It comes across more like white or green peppercorns, vegetal and bitter, and for us, it was not our thing.  We gave it a few sips to make sure and then poured it in the sink.  

The closest we had to a snifter

Thermo Refur: “Ale made with red beets and black pepper” says the bottle.  Needless to say after the last beer and our pepper experience there, we weren’t thrilled to try this one.  And I have no problem admitting that I (like all 5 year-olds) don’t like vegetables, beets in particular were part of more than one excruciating dinnertime experience growing up.  So…not excited.  Gave it a whiff, and it was vegetables and dirt and pepper all up in my nosepiece.  UGH.  So I gave it a try and…not bad!  The pepper is barely noticeable (thank God) and it’s mostly enjoyable.  TONS of carbonation lightens up the thick earthy sweetness from the beets.  Better than we’d hoped it would be.  

Overall, a pretty great bunch of beers, and again thanks to my friend for the opportunity to try them out.  When you’re sampling this many beers, it’s going to happen that there will be one or two that aren’t “for” you, so I wasn’t surprised that they weren’t all winners for me.  I’m sure there’s people out there that would love that pepper beer, God bless ‘em, so I hope they enjoy it. I’ll be in my corner greedily hoarding the Oscura and Make Weight until they run out.  

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on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 5:06 pm and is filed under Reviews.
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One Response to “Furthermore Beer”

1. Kelly says:

   April 23, 2009 at 5:29 am

   I am quite jealous of you and your buddie…