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After The Final Pour - S7E5 - Brickstone - Dark Secret 15 Vanilla
116 Plays3 years ago
Fresh off the release of Dark Secret 16 pre-sale, Brandon and Tony crack open Brickstone's "Dark Secret 15 Vanilla" BA stout.
"The nose here is delectable, delivering wisps of toasted marshmallow and dulche de leche. Expect a rich, full mouthfeel, with waves of chocolate covered caramel, sprinkled with toasted almonds. The finish is dessert like, but not overly sweet, evoking the flavors of tiramisu and crème brulée. Vanilla lifted this stout to a whole new level. An absolute must try."
https://www.brickstonebrewery.com/
Thanks to Kevin and Deb Goggin for the theme song.
Outro music by Fluid Minds
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to After the Final Pour
00:00:30
Speaker
When life gives you an empty cup, just crack a smile and fill it up. Fill it up. Welcome to After the Final Pour, brought to you by The Malting Hour. I am one of your hosts, Tony Golick, joined always with Brandon Winninger. How's it going, buddy?
00:00:54
Speaker
This is an after the final pour and we're doing this after. I already said it, but we're doing this after the final pour prior to an episode. We're not going to say what the actual before the, before the poor, this is before the first pull, but we cracked open, uh, dark seek or a brick stones, dark secret anniversary 15. I think I'm mixing up all the words. It is dark secret
Brickstone's Dark Secret 15: Vanilla Variant
00:01:17
Speaker
15.
00:01:17
Speaker
Yeah. This is the vanilla variant, and we decided to do this because Brickstone is about to, I believe, do, they may already be doing the pre-sale, I think. Depending on when this is out. It's like 29th or something like that. Depending on when this comes out. Yeah. 20th of August. Yeah. So the next batch of Dark Secret, barely reached out, is going to be coming out, and there's variants and stuff. Well, so the anniversary variant. Oh, sorry. Anniversary variant. My apologies. Because Dark Secret is still, I think, traditionally, their Black Friday. Yes.
00:01:43
Speaker
Correct. The anniversary one. Thank you. Sweet 16 is what it said. I better have all my information correct. I got chicken wings stuck in my teeth. I dig some out. All right. I should have got some floss. We had chicken wings. Have you had this one before? I believe so. Holy. I mean, I think the day I picked this, I think I bought this from
00:02:08
Speaker
I don't think I bought this from Vinny's. I'm pretty sure I bought this at Brickstone and picked it up. Maybe not. I don't know. He gave me a lot of beer that day. So we're drinking this. It's almost a year to the day. Yeah. And it's also the temperature of it. It's not like super chilled. No, it's almost not room temperature.
00:02:28
Speaker
It's warm, not gross warm, warmer than normal. And I say that only because...
00:02:44
Speaker
It tastes fantastic. It really does. Like it's one of the things that I've always mentioned about the dark secret or the anniversary beers is that they get that really nice dark chocolate, dark cocoa in there. And this being the vanilla variant, like really the vanilla hits me
Quality and Flavor of Dark Secret 15
00:03:04
Speaker
in the nose. Like when you go to smell it, it smells awesome. And I love vanilla.
00:03:07
Speaker
beers when it's you know proper amounts I mean I've had some vanilla bombs that people are like that's gross and I was like that's fine by me this is not a vanilla bomb it's very nice not too in your face and I don't want to say subtle it's it's it's a nice amount in there that plays very nice with the dark chocolate and the barrel that I'm getting from this there's even like a
00:03:33
Speaker
Because I think of the temperature of the beer, a warming sensation I have in my throat, like the heat, like alcohol. And what's impressive is the amount of vanilla and how clean the vanilla is coming through based on how old the beer is. I mean, it's not like years old, but being in a year, like.
00:03:51
Speaker
If I got this last year, if I had this last year and it tastes just like this. Like I'm taste like a fresh beer. Yeah, absolutely. Vanilla has not faded in any way. Um, and the aroma on it too, like when you were kind of talking about, you can smell the vanilla. The first thing I got was like that rich vanilla extract kind of flavor. And I'm not saying, I don't think they use vanilla. I think they probably used vanilla beans. I'm sure. But like that.
00:04:17
Speaker
in combination with the alcohol in this thing. It's giving you that vanilla extract essence. This is what I would, I'd make this into ice cream. How many more of these do you have left? I don't know. I'm gonna start doing that for like these big stouts we have like, I'd make that into ice cream. Would Brandon make it into an ice cream? The answer is yes.
00:04:41
Speaker
Yeah, this is, uh, speaking of ice cream, did you try that Biscoff ice cream? I did. Brandon made me some more Biscoff ice cream and my wife loves Biscoff and she is being very, excuse me, being a
Brickstone's Dark Secret in Chicago
00:04:55
Speaker
She's restraining herself. Dairy and her don't always get along. And so, by the way, I like how you topped it off the pint with an actual Biscoff cookie. Oh, yeah, I did. But I went in there the next day, Sunday, and I was digging into it. And I'm fine with dairy for now. So I absolutely love it. It's very good. This would also make it very good. And that outside, when you made the outside ice cream, was it attitude and atmosphere? Yep. Or atmosphere and attitudes, whatever. Also very good. This would be fantastic. Oh, yeah.
00:05:23
Speaker
was very good. I'm looking forward to, you know, it's it. I feel like dark secret, at least in Chicago doesn't get all the hype that it deserves. You know, and I think we've talked to Tommy about that. Yeah, it's like, it's it's
00:05:40
Speaker
It's kind of like a night. I mean, it really is a dark secret. You know, like I, I like that I get a chance to get it and I'm not like fighting. I mean, would it be cool if I'm for them business wise? Absolutely. I know going there for when they do the release, it's a pretty packed house and shit like that. But you know, in the store, uh, you guys are sleeping on this and you continue to do so.
Comparison with Other Barrel-aged Beers
00:06:03
Speaker
Braden and I are the ones buying it and we're going to buy all of it.
00:06:18
Speaker
But I like it because of that. Absolutely. Because it brings so much of its own character, the aromas, the flavors, the intenseness that you get. There's no reason that this couldn't stand up with a bourbon counting as its own beer. It's phenomenal. And you get everything that you would be expecting, the barrel, the vanilla, the chocolate, the multi-roastiness. All of that stuff is coming through. And it's coming through a year later.
00:06:26
Speaker
you hear that,
Chicago's Barrel-aged Beer Scene
00:06:47
Speaker
Excellently, I think like I agree 100% and we are as much as we're spoiled in Chicago to have an incredible just incredible breweries in general But when like I we talked about this before with hazy IPA Chicago just does a really good job So we also are the home of you know, barely eat beers, man
00:07:11
Speaker
and started here almost. Okay. I don't, I, it's hard for me to place like what brewery doesn't do a barely aged beer and here in Chicago, Illinois.
00:07:22
Speaker
And they're all good. Yeah, like I I'm sure there's some I'm missing whatever that's fine. But I don't I'm trying to think of like, barrel programs that have failed miserably in our area. And I, I'm literally running through them in my head. And I'm like, Nope, nope, nope, nope. But I'm also trying to think, is there breweries that I know that don't do barrel aging? And then my first thought was dovetail. But then I thought it was like,
00:07:45
Speaker
that is
00:08:03
Speaker
Yeah, we're just very lucky. And like you said, you could put this up against you could take a good chunk of barely aged beers from you know, the greater Chicagoland area all the way down to where bourbon is where brickstone is to, you know, put them up side by side. And I mean, that would be fun. Have a whole
Beer Showdown Concept (Q&A)
00:08:23
Speaker
Showdown of barely aged beers and not even a showdown but just to sit around and enjoy The fact that you said that in my head I'm thinking it would be kind of neat to do like
00:08:36
Speaker
a Black Friday thing, like, you know, places, you know, breweries around that time that release their barrel-aged stuff. So, you know, Brickstone being one, Goose obviously being another, but I know there's others that kind of have stuff that just silently come out. Well, and also like starting in October, all the way through December, a lot of people, a lot of breweries are releasing their barrel-aged beers. I think it stops in like March. It slows down in March and it picks back up in May.
00:09:03
Speaker
and then stops again and then July, you know, revolution. Thank you. Hey guys, we're here to party.
00:09:11
Speaker
I'm dragging through those faster than I thought I was going to, Brandon. I'm not saving them, guys. I'm saving some, but woo! I still have to go pick mine up. Oh, you have until this weekend. No, they changed it. Oh, is it? They push it down to like the 29th. Oh, well. Because they had been closed a couple of times. Just make me a proxy, I'll be good. And then, I think it said no proxies. It was, but you had to do it in the beginning. But then, I remember that like,
00:09:37
Speaker
Oh, today I was going to go get it. And then I ended up just going to bottles and cans instead to pick up stuff for a recording we're going to be doing soon. Soon as in you've already heard that episode. All right. Any final thoughts on this delicious ass beer? I hope I have another one just because I do want to get 16. And if they do have a vanilla version, would love to do a side by side just to see. I hope you have another one just to have another one. Well, yeah, I probably do.
00:10:06
Speaker
Tommy, we're coming for you. And we still need to do, I bought their 10th anniversary I bought like a couple years ago? Or no, last year? Oh yeah, oh that's right.
00:10:17
Speaker
Yeah, I bought the 10th anniversary. It may have been the barrel aged or the non barrel aged. And then Tommy had told me, he asked me for my address and said he was sending me the other version of Tommy. Tommy never did that. So I can't do my side by side with that. Guess we got to go down there and go get it from him. Tommy, it's been a few. It's been almost a year since you were. He was supposed to invite us down so we can taste all the beers and
00:10:42
Speaker
I think we're supposed to contact him. He owns a business, runs a business. We saw him at beer under glass. That's fine. Tommy, but we're coming for you.
Conclusion and Social Media
00:10:48
Speaker
We're coming for you soon. Brandon, love you, buddy. Love you too, bud. See you guys later. Bye.
00:10:55
Speaker
This has been The Malting Hour. Be sure to follow us on all social media by searching The Malting Hour and at themaltinghour.com. You can also follow us individually on social media. Brandon can be found on Instagram as bmdub81, on Twitter, bdub81, and on Untapped as bdubdrinksbeer. Tony can be found on Instagram and Untapped under Ace of Hope Chicago. On Twitter, The Ace of Hope Chicago. Clark can be found as Clarkowski on all three.
00:11:23
Speaker
Dan can be found on Instagram as hip underscore underscore hops and hip hops on YouTube. Be sure to subscribe, like, and rate the show on your preferred podcast listening platform. Until next time, cheers from all of us at The Malting Hour.