In the year of Our Lord 2022, SmokeBeerMinistry will try to come out of pandemic hibernation and start drinking and reviewing beers that taste like smoke again. Oddly enough, SBM’s heaviest traffic days have come in just the last few weeks; quite the surprise. Kicking off the new year with an Imperial Smoked Brown Ale with coffee and maple syrup called Imperial Moountie by Bolero Snort. This beer is a nice, ingredient heavy beer that was actually brewed by a separate company called Cypress Brewing, also in New Jersey. It’s a good beer. It’s got a mild sweetness to it, and a mild bitterness to it, a mild coffee-ness to it, and a mild sourness to it. Too timid? I wonder if they originally made a brown ale and thought there wasn’t enough punch to it, so they added coffee, and still didn’t like it and added smoked malts, and still wanted more and added maple syrup, and then just bottled it and sold it? Maybe. They certainly didn’t love this beer seeing how they stopped making it and retired this beer. They don’t even mention it on their website. So if you want to try it, good luck finding one, but I bet there are still a few out there. Fans of coffee beers will love this beer. SBM is not so much into coffee beers, but we reward quality and that comes through upon pouring this fairly viscous, dark, and boozy snifter beer. Two full pours out of this champagne bottle was enough for me, but I’m going to have a third and finish this bottle because you the reader deserve it. Final score comes in at 5 smokestacks out of 7. You folks be safe out there.
| Brewer | Bolero Snort |
| Beer Name | Imperial Moountie |
| Brewer’s Description | What better way to combat a bit of winter nip in the air than to whip up an imperial version of one of our Fall favorites. We scaled up our cherrywood smoked malt heavy base to a mash maxing level to get this morning wake up to 10.5% then conditioned it on maple syrup and coffee. Syrup smothered bacon and pancakes washed down by a warm cup of joe. (from passionvines.com, maybe it’s the actual brewers description, I don’t know) |
| Food Pairings | A messy fried chicken sandwich smothered in syrup |
| Brewer Location | Carlstadt, NJ |
| Alcohol content by volume | 10.5% |
| IBU (International Bitterness Units) | IBU = (W grams * U% * A% * 1000)/(V liters * C gravity) = a number that does not reflect perceived bitterness tasted in beer, so it’s stupid. |
| Beer opacity rate 1 – 7 (light – dark) | 6.5 |
| Smell smoke? 1 – 7 (No – George Burns) | 2.85 |
| Smokepower taste: 1 – 7 Smokestacks | 3 |
| Sausage detection? Y or N | N |
| Beer thickness 1-7 (water – used motor oil) | 5.75 |
| Overall Happiness Rating: 1-7 (low – high) | 5 |
Website:
bolerosnort.com
SmokeBeerMinistry 