This new version of The Pour Fool will be smaller in every dimension and, toward that end, there will be a lot more straight product reviews…WITH, of course, the same caveat as has been from the beginning (in 2007! Holy SMOKES!) that I will NEVER write a negative thing about any producer EXCEPT Anheuser Busch, breweries that sell out to Anheuser Busch, or breweries like that crapbag Midwestern outfit who fired a black employee and then tried victim-blaming, IN COURT, for which I laid into them and enjoyed doing it. I LIKE people who start and operate wineries, breweries, and artisan distilleries and I refuse to use them as opportunities to see how snarky I can be…which is VERY. So, still, NO Negative Reviews and really no lukewarm ones, either. If I can’t rave, it ain’t here.
So, having written several times about my superb hometown (Tacoma, WA) brewers, E9 Brewing, I could easily get all enraptured for pages but I won’t. And having just recently tasted the Pro-Am offering for which they won a Gold during Tacoma Beer Week, with local homebrewer, Emma Hibbs, I could REALLY launch into geysers of superlatives…but I’ll just say this:
Though I have, in the past, privately had some less than glowing things to say about Pro-Am beers in several dozen festivals and contests, the E9/Hibbs towering Imperial Milk Stout, “Harpua” has to be included in any list I might generate of the top Stouts of ANY description that I have ever found in my Pacific Northwest ‘hood. It is absolutely in the Top Three of all Stouts I’ve tasted from Washington, a state which used to be fairly Stout-challenged but is lately spewing big, complex Stouts like a freakin’ fire hose. Harpua (probably from the Phish tune, but also suggests “Hunahpu” in more than one way) tastes very much like it was infused with some impossibly fine coffee. I can’t find a thing suggesting it was and coffee IS a flavor which can be achieved with just grains and maybe cocoa husks, cleverly roasted, but whatever did it, cafe au lait ROARS out off the glass and paints your tongue like an oil slick. Harpua has Body (no pun intended) for DAYS and yet is only 6.2% ABV – SIX-POINT-TWO PERCENT! I have literally tasted maybe one of two other Stouts in that alcohol range, EVER, that had this much heft and brawn and viscosity. It absolutely slam-hammers every one of my Dark Ale buttons, of which there are many and many of those rarely touched. The roastiness quotient is off all charts. This is certifiably GREAT Stout. 98 Points
SO…discomfort time: what is E9 planning to do with what is arguably one of their finest creations? More specifically, what are E9 and Emma Hibbs WILLING to do? It make my belly button pucker to think that this is just a one-off, never to be seen again. I would, in fact, strongly suggest, if Shane Johns and his crew had a suggestion box and would allow me within fifty feet of it, that this very beer, right here, be made at least a longer-duration seasonal – on the order of The Abyss or Parabola – or just Go For It and nail down the Stout Game, here in WA state, and make it a year-round selection. Just my $.02..,but I would lay out a TON more than $.02 to keep buying this thing if they were to continue making it.
AS I was standing in the E9 taproom, down on Fawcett, the other day, a lady in front of me was ordering one for her husband but got curious. “I’m more of an IPA girl,” she told the lady behind the bar, “But I love the way that beer looks. Can I taste it?” She picked up the sample, sniffed it warily, and took a small sip. She emitted an audible, “Mmmmmm,” and smiled at the bartender, “I think I want one of those!“
I predict that little scenario will be played out frequently, as long as this first/only(?) batch of Harpua lasts. I bought home a four pack, three days ago, and it is GONE. We literally could not keep our hands off of it.
As always, I apologize for the Dirty Pool of writing about beer which 75% of my readers don’t live anywhere close to being able to get. But sometimes something comes along that benignly, courteously DEMANDS to be praised. And Harpua is One of Those.
The Pour Fool 