The Pike Brewing Co's XXXXX Pike Stout

Being a self-motivated, self-taught, and mostly self-read beer blogger has distinct advantages. The world of beer is incredibly rich and diverse, and as each new brewer begins experimenting with a new brew, that world grows. With the next post always in the back of my mind, I take advantage of new and intersting excuses to explore.

"Hey, end of the week. Time for a beer."
"That was a long day. Time for a beer."
"Aliens didn't probe me last night, or if they did, I don't remember. Time for a beer."
"That street is a nice gray color. Time for a beer."
"I'm not currently drinking a beer. Time for a beer."

It's a dangerous form of the devolution of cause and effect, to be sure. But a beer blogger never needs to worry about concerned family and friends interveining to make them go to meetings; a blogger isn't someone with a problem, he/she is just in love with an intellectual hobby.

For this entry, I actually had a legitimate excuse: my birthday. So when the bartender placed a XXXXX Pike Stout in front of me, I drank in the absence of a concerned conscience.

Like most stouts, the Pike Brewery's version of the beer is an abyssally dark brown color. In most any lighting, it appears black, but the few bubbles of the calm head glow a rich brown. The aroma of these bubbles is noticeably sweet, and for a second I though I had just bought a porter. The brew itself was quick to remind that no, this was definately a stout.

The first contact attempts to lull you into a false sense of security; Its unassuming in only a slightly bitter fashion. Abruptly after that, its plainly obvious that this beer was designed to punch you in the face with coffee bitterness.

I'm talking the sort of accelleration you see at Best Buy on Black Friday; you start outside, it's cold, it's early, you strike up conversations with your neighbors because you're sharing an experience together (and you want to know if those assholes are after the same deals as you.) That's first contact with this beer.

The body is when the doors of the store open, and everything transitions from utter stagnation to chaotically frantic activity; people shove, basic politeness falls to the side, and that bastard in front of you better not fall down because it would take you crucial moments to run your shopping cart over his pathetically prone body.

0-100. That is how this beer works.

The memory sticks with you, too; the deals, the blood, everyone else there seems crazy when viewed through the lens of retrospect and self-bias (though you were foaming at the mouth a the time). So too does the stout linger after the swallow. A delightfully strong bitterness that seems more like post-tramatic stress than an aftertaste.

It is this power and aggressiveness that makes the XXXXX Pike Stout so delicious. For those who tend to dislike dark beers, this might be a gem to save for after your enlightenment. Leave this delightful beast to those who love beer they can't see through.