Name: Cryptical Envelopment
Brewer: Tired Hands Brewing Company (United States)
Style: Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer (Base Style: Imperial Stout)
ABV: 9.6%
Review Year: 2019
Cryptical Envelopment is an Imperial Stout brewed with Brazillian coffee beans, vanilla, pandan, and lactose by Tired Hands. The name of the beer is a tribute to the song of the American rock band, Grateful Dead.
STYLE GUIDELINES
This beer is being evaluated as a Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer (30A) with the Imperial Stout (20C) as the base style in the context of the 2015 Beer Style Guidelines of the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP). The most current version of the guidelines can be found on the BJCP website. Note that this beer was also brewed with lactose.
TASTING NOTES
This coffee stout is clad in pitch-black color so dark that sucks in all the light out of the day. Very prominent aromas of chocolate fudge cake and pandan leaves make their rounds, intensifying as the beer warms. The first sip was divine. It was a sensation akin to drinking full-bodied chocolate syrup. The palate continues with chocolate caramel brownies dipped Oreo-esque in a glass of milk. Further, some leafy tobacco notes come in as hints of vanilla, pandan, and some spiciness follow through. The beer then leaves a lingering finish of vanilla, malts, chocolates, and a dash of licorice adding something new into the mix.
THE VERDICT
Released on-site in very limited quantities, Cryptical Envelopment is a super decadent coffee lactose-infused stout. It is one of those beers we wished we could turn back time to enjoy it again.
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