Sonoran 100

Formerly brewed at Sonoran Brewing Company
Style: American Strong Ale
Phoenix, Arizona USA

Thanks to Murray’s for the taste! Fantastic. Very oaky. The oak and maple really shine through. Incredibly drinkable for such a high alcohol beer. Hides the alcohol very well.

Tried from bottle at 2009 Stone Sour Fest. Sweet. Black color. Alcohol well hidden for almost 20%. Excellent! I love sweet!

Bottle… O-Town Throwdown Part Tres... This beer rocks!… Murky burnt orange ale with no head. The nose is an intoxicating whirlwind of woodsy, smoky notes with a big whiskey blast. I’m picking up both Scotch and bourbon with a touch of diacetyl. The complex flavor is a swirl of essences; sweet whisky, wood, caramel, plum and molasses. Boozy and surprisingly well-bittered… despite all its malts and sugars, this brew actually leans toward the bitter side of balance. Full-bodied with a coarse, watery mouthfeel and no carbonation. Finishes alcoholic and dry. I’m going against the grain here, but I absolutely loved my sample. Thanks boboski!

Wow, Scott sure can brew some interesting beer. The 19.5% alcohol is masked by the maple sweetness. The sweetness is balanced not so much by hops but by a smokey flavor given to it by the toasted oak chips I believe. It is similar to Sam Adams Utopias or Triple Bock, but better. With as much alcohol as it has I think it will keep for years. Still a sipping beer like a cognac, not a gulping monster.

[169/10120] Poured a clear, dark copper color with no head, poured still, decent legs. Aroma of maple, honey, vanilla, nuts, and caramel. Taste was sweeter, maple, brown sugar, caramel, nuts, with a drier smoke, oak, and a bit of roast, before finishing warm. Extremely chewy mouthfeel, thanks Steve.

Bottle At Cole’s Rare Beer Fest, January 2009. I think this varies from bottle to bottle - I know jerc and rudolf rated from a different bottle than my sample. Poured MURKY - thick, cloudy deep brown, smallish head - but I love non-clear beer - looked fantastic to me. Sweet, lightly smokey aroma, lushly nutty, not too boozy - really reminded me a lot of the Apis Jadwiga, definitely honey in there. The taste seemed drier, more alcohol-forward - buckwheat honey, seriously roasted malt, some balancing herbal bitterness, decidedly alcoholic, but to my palate very well balanced - quite warming. Thick, still mouthfeel, slightly alcohol-dry and astringent, with a long, sweet malty finish - sooooo good ("ham"? HAM? - you must have had a different bottle) ... only minor quibble, I’d like the herbal character to last a little longer, but I’d buy a bottle of this in a heartbeat.

Pours a tawny leathered amber color w/ very little froth (very whisky like). Aromas of steak and teriyaki w/ a little whiff of Bourbon. Medium nectar and still as night. It even drinks like whisky. The texture is almost Sake like in feel. Flavor profile is earthy w/ a defined smokey character. Jerkey, leather, carameled persimmons, cigar wrapper, Madiera, and a distinguishable Bourbon essence. You actually have to drink this like a bird drinking water. Tilt your head all the way back to expose your back sides of the tongue to the brew. This is where you taste it best. It’s multi layered. You get alcohol glycerin upfront, then the flavors settle in but just for a minute and then the glycerin comes back and wipes the palate clean leaving very little flavor at all except on the back sides of the tongue. The finish is mellow w/ very little bittering. Amazing as it sounds, there is very little alcohol flavor. This brew drinks like some killer aged sake.

The coolest bottle I have ever seen, bobo hooks me up again. Beer pours a murk brown, odd greenish hue around the edge, very ugly in fact. The aroma is everything I love in my dessert wines, Madiera and Sherry like aromas dominate, with some candied orange zest, the odd raisin and dried plum, the initial aroma yields to a more whisky like charecter, with notes of smoke, wood, leather and kiss of maple coming through. The aroma caused me to think that this was going to be a syrupy, perhaps disjointed mess. Boy was I wrong. The whisky side seems to dominate here, with a nice wodd component, bowing to a wisp of smoke and a touch of treacle. Alcohol is there, but only really begins to show itself on the very end of the taste, slightly warming all the way to the finish. Very impressive.