The Bishop’s… Penguin?
Last night was a great time at Pratt Street Ale House in downtown Baltimore. Quite a few folks came out to celebrate the release of Oliver Ale’s latest beer release called The Bishop’s Indulgence, an 8% ABV chocolate stout brewed with cocoa nibs and vanilla beans, aged on American Oak for several months. This new beer was available on both regular tap and on cask.
Some of us also came out to see the beautiful glass ended firkin, full of fresh Oliver Ale’s “Best Bitter” – dry hopped with local Maryland “chinook” hops.
Both beers were delicious. Though we must admit, The Bishop’s Indulgence was really the hit of the night. We overheard lots of folks raving about this smooth, velvety chocolate-tasting beer. The cask version was fantastic.
The surprise of the night (nope, not the 4 inches of snow!) came when brewmaster Steve Jones broke out a bottle of Brew Dog’s 32% ABV beer, “Tactical Nuclear Penguin.” With a few other beer bloggers and bar owners in attendance, it seemed like the perfect time to share the world’s highest ABV beer amongst friends. And that’s what we did! The Tactical Nuclear Penguin exceeded just about everyone’s expectations. It was actually good. Very good! The alcohol smell certainly hits you first, but we also picked up lots of dark roasted smokiness. The beer went down surprisingly smooth, though obviously a sipper. The smoky taste was there along with a hint of bacon (?!?) Not as sweet as many of us imagined and we were all pleasantly surprised. If you see the photo below of the sample sizes, it took most of us 10-15 minutes just to sip on and finish our glass.
Thanks a ton to Steve Jones and assistant brewer Justin Damadio, for hanging out all night answering questions from curious beer lovers.. and for brewing some delicious beer. Also, a big thanks to everyone who came out last night, especially the ones who introduced themselves to me and let me know they consistently read our site and follow us on Twitter. Meeting you folks for the first time was a treat. Hope to see you all out again soon!
Enjoy the pics below.
03 Feb 2010, 1:45 pm
That’s one sexy beer. I really want a bottle but I’m going use the more nefarious means of ebay to do it. Maybe someone will gift me one at some point.
03 Feb 2010, 1:49 pm
Cool post, Brad. Another great example of camaraderie general goodwill that exists in the beer community. the TNP sounds great…I still need to get my hands on some. That glass firkin is awesome.
I’m kind of jealous…as far as i know, there isn’t one single good beer bar in my area. Cheers!
03 Feb 2010, 1:53 pm
Tactical Nuclear Penguin is not, in fact, the highest ABV beer on the planet. That title now belongs to Schorschbrau Schorschbock, which comes in at just under 40% ABV.
03 Feb 2010, 3:04 pm
I’ve heard that but have not seen it anywhere.
03 Feb 2010, 4:08 pm
Def a great night. Loved the Chocolate Indulgence cask. The Penguin was as described… Smooth, Boozy, Bacon.
04 Feb 2010, 7:24 am
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by BeerInBaltimore: A glass ended firkin, a chocolatey aged beer release and Tactical Nuclear Penguin. Our pics from last night http://bit.ly/c2Y2Ne...
16 Feb 2010, 10:30 am
[...] breaking the beer ABV record which was previously held by BrewDog’s Nuclear Penguin (we had some!) – BrewDog fired back a shot of their own and just announced a new 41% ABV beer called Sink [...]
21 Feb 2010, 1:21 pm
[...] We are also looking forward to doing a side-by-side with Heavy Seas new chocolate infused stout with Oliver’s own chocolate infused stout, The Bishop’s Indulgence. [...]
24 Feb 2010, 4:28 pm
[...] stuff in one sitting. For the record, this one reminded us of a slightly-less strong version of Tactical Nuclear Penguin (also from Brew [...]
24 Feb 2010, 5:12 pm
[...] stuff in one sitting. For the record, this one reminded us of a slightly-less strong version of Tactical Nuclear Penguin (also from Brew [...]
25 Mar 2010, 8:10 pm
[...] We were fortunate enough to sample the Penguin not too long ago and were excited to have another crack at it. You can read our thoughts on the Penguin by clicking that link as well. [...]