Beer Reviews, Destihl Brewery

Saturday, I went up to Bloomington Normal as I had heard an old friend was going to be coming down from the Quad Cities and would be staying for the weekend at my brother's. Well, he changed his mind/couldn't make it. So I'm sitting at Jim's and wondering what to do; he said "You want to go to Illinois Brewing Company?" and I'm like "hell no, lets go to Destihl". So we jumped in the Aveo and headed out to Destihl.

I like Destihl, they make some good beer. Nothing is too extreme, the ABV on their beers is reasonable, if not low (the barleywine is 10% so it's a session barleywine). When Jim and I walked in, it was the same bartender we've had each time we've been there, so the familiarity level was high. It's nice to walk into a place after a couple of months and be able to ask what's new on tap, and they guy brings you a glass.

The first beer we tried was the Bourbon Barrel Aged Stout. Do you remember the other day when I discussed being able to smell the beer:

I've noticed that beers served at Radio Maria don't have a smell. This is because (sadly) the beer glass is too full (I believe). There's no room for the aroma to sit, it comes off the glass and dissipates into the air, before you have a chance to smell it.

(yeah, I just quoted myself)

Well, this beer was served in a perfect glass for the style. This was a huge snifter. As I pulled it up to my nose, the smell of the whiskey was almost overpowering. I said a noticeable "WOW", then asked what kind of whiskey was in it, then was informed it was Wild Turkey.

This beer came out black, with the pretty brown head, the kind that looks like a milk shake. It's not as thick as a Yeti, but it's the same colors. It smelled like a shot of whiskey. It was an overpowering smell, there was nothing else coming out of the glass. It wasn't unpleasant, it definitely let you know you were drinking something aged in a whiskey barrel. Our bartender, who's name I can't remember, said when they went to fill the barrel with the stout, that there was a visible sloshing around amount of whiskey/bourbon in the barrel.

It felt a little thin and runny, and possibly a little chalky on the tongue. The taste was initially smoke, then coffee, then chocolate... the smell was totally not in the taste, it was almost a tease how strong the smell was. It wasn't until about halfway through that the bourbon flavor appeared. It apparently needed to warm up to be present.

Overall this was a pretty good beer, definitely not a lawnmower beer, unless you like to make really crooked lines while you are mowing. I liked it enough that I picked up a growler of it. I'm sure once Kriddy gets past the smell of the bourbon, that she'll like this beer. Oh and after she gets done being slightly angry with me, she might like it more.

While finishing the stout, our bartender took us on a tour of the brewery section, showing us the Japanese labels (apparently the equipment came from a defunct Japanese brewpub; so all the labels were in Japanese). All the manuals were in Japanese too, so the first few times using the equipment was a major guess, he said "well, at beer school, this button would do this... so let's hope". Their results for not being able to RTFM, are pretty darn good. Although, they are in Bloomington Normal, so they could probably just call up Mitsubishi and have someone come over and translate. We went into the refrigeration room where the hops were stored, and man... that was a blast of hops smell. Like breathing an IPA... speaking of an IPA.

My next beer was the Redbird, dry-hopped, cask Ale. This beer was like drinking that air. It was served in a full pint glass, so the smells weren't able to be released. However, it didn't need aroma to add flavor. This was bite you in the back of the tongue hoppy! The bartender thought it might be either Fuggle or Cascade hops, I figure it was probably cascade, because it didn't seem very British but seemed Pacific Northwestern.

Our outstanding bartender gave me a sample of the original Redbird Ale, which I had sitting next to the cask ale. Their appearance was night and day. The cask sure did look like flat beer. There were obvious carbonation bubble in the tiny shot of the regular. Their color may have been the same, but the taste was nothing alike. These beers may have been brothers at one time, but they were put up for adoption, and one became the evil twin. The regular was malty and sweet, the cask was rip your tastebuds off hoppy. They were both great. The cask reminded me of a rye pale. Rye's seem to hold their hops flavor for a long time. Regular IPA's can lose some of their hoppy bite after a while, but rye's cling to it. This was fresh, but was the same kind of bite as a rye. It was great.

As we were finishing up our beers, we decided since Jay wasn't coming down here, we'd go up to him... road trip!