So what do you do when its an extremely ugly Thursday – National Stout Day – raining, freezing cold, ugly out? …..You drink a barleywine of course! Ugh! Face Palm!

Yea, this was a fubar. I thought this was a stout, so I grabbed it, poured it without reading it, and was about to dig in for National Stout Day…. and lo and behold…. it was a barleywine! But this was certainly a delicious mistake! And gee darn, it meant I had to go and drink a stout later in the day. Oh darn… oh no…. more beer…. oh gee, oh darn!

(And of course thats just what I did, having the S’Mores LazaRIS stout from Boneshire. Which made up for this “mistake”.)

Barleywines are one of my favorite styles, and I love the high ABV of them, which can be dangerous at 11AM; but I powered through like a professional. …and drank this fast. It was so easy to drink. I wish I had a whole six pack of this because it went down so smoothly and effortlessly and easily that I need more of it!

Beer: There’s Nuttin’ Butter Than a Nice Pair of Cam Pants
Brewery: Westbrook Brewing Co.
Collaboration with: Edmund’s Oast Brewing Company
Style: Barleywine – Other
ABV: 10%
IBU: 15
Untappd Write-Up: Nutter Butter inspired barleywine with peanut butter, lactose and vanilla. Collaboration with EOBC.

Well, this was far from a mistake to drink. Only mistake was drinking it so fast. This is pure gold. Barleywines are one of my favorite styles and this is no exception, if anything, it’s raised the bar for barleywines and what they can do and be. There is just so much flavor in this.

First off, appearance is when I noticed this was no stout so I read the can… and yep…. oopsies. The coloring is a golden brown, not quite what you see in the picture above due to the flash of the camera, its golden, brown, amber-ish in hue. It had a very healthy foamy head to it that was light in color, great bubbles and retained and stayed for a while. Sipping through it was delicious.

Aroma is peanut butter strongly, like a real nutter butter candy, strong peanut butter, strong vanilla, some caramel notes. It smells sweet, like it should be sugary. You get a good whiff of the lactose vanilla and peanut butter, you get some hints of a boozyness. You can tell your gonna be in for a good smooth drink.

First sip is magical. Its simply wonderful. Its smooth, its easy, its very sweet. Not overpowering or cloying sweet, but sweet. Which is a rarity or barleywines. (At least in my experience.) It has a fantastic mouthfeel. Nice, easy sipping, smooth and enjoyable. You get some booze on the tongue but its not really there. For a 10% its hidden extremely well and barely noticeable, which can be either very dangerous, or a great thing; depending on your plans for the day. This is extremely tasty, you get the vanilla from the lactose, and you get a great peanut butter taste that just is extremely well done, its not too much, its not too overpowering, its just right. I think taste and aroma this is a lot like the Molly Pitcher Peanut Butter Porter; its got just the right amount of peanut butter.

It is to be noted, that this does include peanuts. The can specifically states that it was made with REAL NUTS. So for those with allergies should stay very clear of this beer. So be forewarned about that! (Like I have to stay clear of oyster stouts that use healthy doses of oysters.)

My Untappd Rating: ****.25 (Easily could be boosted up to a 4.5 instead.)
Global Untappd Rating: 4.12 (as of 11.8.19)

Ok, 8 days down, 8 days still good. Kicking this month’s butt so far! (Though a few days have been harder than others.) Same with drinking a new beer a day. Not hard yet. Doing pretty well on that front as well!

Today is a special day as we’re double-dropping. Pretty much simultaneously here as it looks. In just minutes (check 1PM) J. Doncevic’s review will drop. Look for it here. It should be great! I always love reading his reviews! (I’ll link it in here once its fully posted.)

Ok everyone, cheers and enjoy your Friday!

-B. Kline

Undoubtedly the biggest, baddest, best beer and possibly the most popular one that Boneshire Brew Works is known for is LazaRIS. It’s their flagship stout, and their biggest, boldest, darkest beer (Dark of the Forest coming in a close second.) (Also, be on the lookout soon for a review of LazaRIS – the original – by J. Doncevic soon.) So, over the past three years there’s been a few varieties and variants done by the brewmaster Alan Miller of Boneshire Brew Works; some of which include Coconut, Pumpkin, Pumpkin Spice, Tiramisu, and a few others – and now finally a s’mores version. And I think Alan might have outdone himself on this one.

For the 3rd Anniversary Party, Alan – and Boneshire Brew Works – released a few variants of the mainstay staple LazaRIS. Including a firkin of the Tiramisu, a coconut one, the Pumpkin spice, and s’mores. The Tiramisu, coconut, and Pumpkin Spice ones were done before, but the s’mores was a brand new one. So thus I decided to start there with my reviews on it. And I’ll let J. Doncevic do a full write-up on the original LazaRIS to give this some more meaning. Once he gets his review up, I’ll link to it, so you can read up on it and get a better understanding of this beer.

Out of all of the variants released (and re-released) at the 3rd Anniversary party, this by far blew me away, and was my uncontested favorite of the bunch – unsettling and toppling the previous – Tiramisu one. Though, the original LazaRIS is equal to all of these for its own unique reasons, I feel like this s’mores variant is leap years above all of the other variants, and is just my absolute favorite.

Beer: S’Mores LazaRIS
Brewery: Boneshire Brew Works
Style: Stout – Imperial / Double
ABV: 9.5%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: Our Russian Imperial Stout, LazaRIS, with the addition of s’mores flavorings.
Original LazaRIS Write-Up: LazaRIS rises from the dead with with its rich and complex flavors of a Russian Imperial Stout.

The original LazaRIS stout is certainly rich and complex; and this version is no different.

Aroma is very heavy malt, caramel chocolate like notes, sweet vanilla notes, with a bready biscotti or graham cracker like smell lingering on the underneath of it all. The malt and grain notes are strong, roast, caramel chocolate, and give it a good backbone to the adjunct additions of marshmallow, graham, and vanilla.

Appearance is your typical stout look; like I’m constantly saying in this blog. Its Razor Ramon hair dark black. Its heavy looking, its thick looking, its full bodied, like a good woman (or man). There is a thin head to this, not a big foamy head, but a small circling ring with white going to brown foam, there is a lot of bubbles to the head that are varying shape and size.

Now lets move onto the real gem of this beauty; its taste. Hmmm mmmm hmmm mmmm. The taste is so fantastic. There is booze, there is depth, there is heavyness, thickness, there is wonderful malt, wonderful grain, wonderful notes of all of the adjuncts, there is just so much flavor and complexity, so much richness and decadence to this brew that its much to list and describe. Starting with first notes; you get a caramel and roast malt taste on initial impression with some booze heavyness to it but not overpowering or disturbing, this then seeps into the malts going more chocolate and roasty and toasty; but then the adjuncts quickly take over – you get marshmallow and vanilla notes. Quickly you get the full dark cooking chocolate for the s’more, and then a nice underlying bready, biscuit, graham cracker flavor that gives it a nice soft ending, a nice backbone to it all that ties in perfectly with the roast malt, the caramel chocolate malt, and the heavy grain bill. Making this just one fantastic, wonderful, rich, tasty, complex beer.

That makes this one fantastic and perfect beer on a super ugly Pennsylvania fall-into-winter day like today. ESPECIALLY when that day happens to also be National Stout Day.

Still on tap at Boneshire Brewery on Derry Street in Rutherford, so be sure to stop in! It certainly won’t last much longer!

My Untappd Rating: ****.50
Global Untappd Rating: 4.02 (as of 11.7.19, National Stout Day)

So, funny thing about this article, this was meant to be done SOOOOO MUCH EARLIER in the day…. but so much in the day came up and happened. (Joys of your days off being consumed by kiddos and doctor appointments, and drama rehearsals, and bingo, and all kinds of things.)

But I originally grabbed a can of Edmund Oast’s and Westerbrook’s “There’s Nuttin’ Butter Than Cam Pants” – thinking it’d make for a perfect stout on National Stout Day, and a great beer to review for it…. well, lo and behold my surprise when I realize after pouring it and taking my first sip (appearance was the first give-away) that it was actually in fact a barleywine. *Face-Palm*. Well, what else was I to do but make sure I had a fantastic stout later in the day to make sure I do a stout review on Stout day?

Needless to say, this was a great stout for the day. Such a super ugly, dreary, miserable mess of a day, but a super wonderful, fantastic, rich, beer from one of my favorites breweries, definitely made it all better! I can’t recommend this beer, and this brewery enough or more. So make sure you stop out and check them out on Derry Street in Rutherford PA (located in between Harrisburg and Hummelstown Pennsylvania; right by the 717 Armory).

And yes, I know, yesterday I hinted at getting two blogs today done; and I wanted to. But it just didn’t happen. Normally, this review would have been done early in the day, and then a second review done up later today (like NOW time) if I had the chance. But unfortunately, life does intervene. But no worries, still got it done, and still on target for 30 for 30; now sitting comfortably at 7 for 7.

Cheers All!

-B. Kline