Long Winter's Nap - Blue Mountain Brewery

oberon

North Carolina

4.05/5  rDev -0.7%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4

10%ABV. per bottle label.Best by May 2013.Picked this at Bestway this week along with it's "sister" beer Blitzen.Poured into a 1/2 liter stein a clear deep bronze with a large fluffy white crown that settles into a frothy mass.Bready pale malt aromas along with some caramel sweetness wich makes for a sweet bread aroma,a mild shot of spicy hops linger.A full but more mellow feel to beer makes it easy in the mouth and more drinkable.A beefed up pale bock on the palate with a hefty shot of caramel and toasty dough,a little hot after awhile but the spicy hops also show thru more as I drink more.to me this is more of a Helles bock in nature, with its aromas,color,flavor,etc....It's pretty damn good but it packs a punch,I make take a long nap after drinking this.

Serving type: bottle

12-08-2012 21:53:04 | More by oberon

blackie

Virginia

4/5  rDev -2%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

a: shaker pint serving, sort of a golden-amber in color, white head with a reasonably retained layer on the surface

s: big pale lager malt presence, bready, full and sweet yet maintaining a clean and focused lager cleanliness, features a wide range of ripe fruit sugars, very modest supply of grassy hop aromas

m: carbonation around moderate with a slick, malty body

t: heavy with sweet, bready lager malts, big on sugar coated fruit flavors - apple, various overripe tropicals, honey, mild noble hop flavors with a subtle bittering in the finish, deliciously sweet without being cloying, rich and satisfying, alcohol rarely shows through - pretty impressive given its weight

d: fairly easy for a 12 percent imperial lager

draft at Galaxy Hut on a night featuring most VA beers

Serving type: on-tap

02-10-2011 03:01:41 | More by blackie

dbrauneis

New Jersey

3.8/5  rDev -6.9%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.5

Served on tap at Blue Mountain Brewery in Afton, VA.

A: Pours a clear dark amber in color with some light to moderate amounts of visible carbonation. The beer has a finger tall off-white head that slowly fades to a thin film covering about half the surface of the beer with a thin ring at the edges of the glass. Significant amounts of lacing are observed.

S: Moderate aromas of toasted bready malts with some light fruit/apple notes. There are light amounts of spicy hops. Light amounts of alcohol are noticeable.

T: Moderate to strong flavors of toasted bready malts with some honey sweetness and some light fruits (apple but more like sweetened apple juice than apples or cider). Light amounts of spicy hops and alcohol in the finish. Almost no bitterness to this one.

M: Just slightly less than full bodied with moderate amounts of carbonation. Slightly syrupy with light to moderate amounts of alcohol heat in the finish.

O: With the slightly syrupy sweetness (not quite sweet enough to be cloying) and the high ABV which is present, this beer is not the easiest to drink and needs to be slowly sipped to be enjoyed.

Serving type: on-tap

12-19-2012 04:37:27 | More by dbrauneis

CrellMoset

Virginia

4.08/5  rDev 0%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 5 | overall: 4

They call it a blonde triplebock, but until BA recognizes that classification, I'm going to have to call it a doppelbock. Served out of a growler in to a snifter.

Appearance: Pours a bright, radiant copper, a crystalline amber, very clear, showcasing dozens of sparkling bright streams of effervescence, mercurial and lively. They rise upwards to an initial one finger of nearly pure white head, but the retention is alarmingly poor, rendering the fluffy albumen top to a thin, barely existent collar and a dash of surface lacing inside thirty seconds. There's not too much else to say about the appearance - there's no lacing of which to speak on the sides of the glass and soon none on the surface, and the collar ultimately fades away entirely. It's probably about what you'd expect from a lightly hopped, high abv% brew.

Aroma: Light, estery, and fruity, relatively clean and a little crisp. The malts are crackery and light, though the nose is definitely dominated by sweet, light, macerated fruits. Peaches and mango mingle with honey, raw sugar-encrusted pineapple, fresh cherries, and faint grassy hops. It's intense, pleasant, but not overwhelmingly complex.

Taste: What a blonde triplebock should taste like (right?). For real though, this is a bit of a developing style (lightly or un-kilned lager beers of great strength), and this is one of the better ones I've had. Too often, they can get sticky, syrupy, or cloying, or the lagering reveals a number of unpleasant estery chemical notes that don't drop out. This one has neither of those problems, fortunately. Simple malts suggest honey, biscuits, only faint traces of roast, and some raw, cidery sugary notes reminiscent of unfiltered brown sugar. The real dominant presence here is light, tropical fruits, pithy oranges, mango, peaches. It's that wonderful raw, simple fruityness that comes from a combination of heavy lagering and simple sugars being yeasted up. A mild, faint hop bitterness lends a slight grassyness to things that doesn't come close to balancing the residual sugars, though it doesn't really need to - they're well enough attenuated (what with the 12% and all) that the balance between sweetness and cidery dryness is definitely present. Speaking of the 12%, it's an afterthought for all practical purposes, the spiciness and estery notes buried beneath the sweetness and fruity notes, respectively.

Mouthfeel: A fantastic mouth on this one. The body is thick, heavy, fat, but not sticky or cloying by virtue of the balance in the flavor. But the lively carbonation visible above renders thickness light and fluffy, thick but not heavy on the tongue. It's velvety smooth, and has enough lift that it achieves a rare balance.

Drinkability: You know, they say this one is 12%, but it doesn't feel it. It also doesn't taste like it, because if this one is indeed 12%, it's one of the best hidden alcohol quantities (volumes) I've ever experienced, buried underneaths sweet biscuity malts and and long macerated tropical and stone fruits. This type of beer - that is, a blonde, high abv% doppelbock - is one that's being tried by Mikkeller, in the style of Samichlaus (though not that extreme), and what's absolutely fantastic is that a beer style (or substyle) that I've previously only tried imported from Austria or wherever-the-hell Mikkeller is brewing/brewed at any given time has been produced right down the street in central VA. A great winter sipper, not quite the dark, malty lagered bomb that might really hit the spot come a toasty cold night, but one I'm highly appreciative of.

Serving type: growler

01-12-2011 03:58:23 | More by CrellMoset

DaveBlack

Virginia

4.18/5  rDev +2.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4

A: Beautiful dark auburn color. Approximately 1 finger's width of head has a moderate retention and leaves only a little bit of lacing.

S: Toasty and sweet. Lots of caramel malts, bready, and a little bit of spicy hops. Good smelling beer.

T: Lots of flavor in this beer. Sweet toffee, biscuity, with maple syrup and some dark fruits. The taste is quite sweet at first, and it is not quite balanced out on the finished by the hops, which do add a nice spiciness to the finish. The alcohol pervades throughout, thought it is fairly well restrained with the heavy dose of flavors.

M: Fairly heavy, syrupy body. The carbonation is moderate, and doesn't do much to hold back the syrup, which makes it a little cloying.

O: A really nice winter beer. The flavors are big and bold and sweet and there are a lot of them. It can get a little sweet, and I would never want more than a bottle. Good to split.

Serving type: bottle

12-29-2012 22:48:37 | More by DaveBlack

obywan59

Virginia

3.78/5  rDev -7.4%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

750ml bottle corked and wired, with a picture of a sleeping bear in a nightcap.

Gorgeous light amber in color with golden edges. A 1 finger pale tan head recedes quickly. Good lace coverage of short endurance. Eventually, only a ring remains with the barest haze on the surface. Approaching the clarity of wine.

Richly sweet, toasty brown bread prevails. Stewed dark fruits with just a hint of spice from the hops.

Sweet dark fruits with light molasses and a bit of tart grapefruit with the peel. Toasted grains throughout with some light bitter hops in the end. Light spicy hops appear on occasion.

Rather full bodied with moderate bite upfront. Syrupy, but not overly sticky. Alcohol is evident on the swallow.

The sweet/syrupyABV interaction pushes the envelope for me. Not quite cloying. Definitely a sipper, and worthy of a slower more deliberate approach. It would be a good winter warmer and perhaps deserving of another month or two of maturity.

Serving type: bottle

12-12-2012 03:46:49 | More by obywan59