Resident Film Expert Woody had this to say about Black Star’s Aleph Null:

At Beer Blog Friday’s we never know what we’re going to get.  Could be a Belgium fest, could be cheap beer and ass crack.  I prefer the Belgium, but to each his own.

This particular Friday, everyone at Hammerhead’s Beer Blog Friday was treated to something special and local, which, if you know anything about Austin, goes over like a Democrat president wearing flip flops and riding a fixie, which is to say, very well.

Jeff Young from the Black Star Co-Op, the nations first publicly owned brewery, stopped by the bike shop with samples of his own captivating, consumable concoctions, but one brew in particular, the Aleph Null, was a huge highlight.

Jeff describes this one as a “Wheat Wine,” as opposed to the usual Barley Wine, meaning it contains a large, very large, even larger portion of wheat malt.  Jeff is certainly doing his part to keep Austin beer weird.

My first impression of this very unique brew was the fruit flavors that were present.  It was slightly tart, with a bit of cranberry, but unlike the usual barley wines, this was far lighter, more drinkable (which could be dangerous..we’ll get to that later), and had some fruitier notes similar to the Belgian ales.  It poured on the darker side, similar to a medium brown ale, and just screamed, drink me, drink me.  So down the hole we went.

So now on to the drinkability of this sucker.  We could tell that it had a slightly stronger alcohol content, and Jeff asked us to guess the percentage.  We all guessed somewhere in the 7-9 percent range, but according to Jeff, the ABV is in the 14 percent range!!!!  Are you kidding me?  This beer went down waaaayyyyy too easy to be that strong, but who am I to argue with it’s creator right?  I’ve had beers that were 8% ABV that tasted stronger than this, and if you’ve ever had steel reserve, you can attest to that.

Jeff said this beer is one of the more expensive beers to brew, which makes sense considering the amount of extra wheat that goes into making it, so the cost of a pint will be slightly higher than the usual, but weighing in at almost 14%, one will do you just fine, but be careful, because this beer is so easy to drink, you may not know what you’re getting into.

Cheers to Jeff Young for pushing the boundaries of what beer can be.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS