Eleven

 In 2011, Hop Valley brewed a ridiculous beer in homage to This Is Spinal Tap - they took the conceit of the famous amp scene from the film and truly ran with it. The beer was made with 11 malts and 11 hops, and came out to 11% ABV at 111 IBUs. It was released, appropriately enough, on 11/11/2011 at 11:11pm, while a screening of the movie played.

Back then, Eleven was an extreme beer in every sense of the word - thick, dark, roasty, bracingly bitter, and vividly hoppy, with a pronounced alcohol kick. Since the debut, Hop Valley held a number of kegs and has been slowly releasing them over the past couple of years.

The most recent of these kegs appeared today, at the Bier Stein. I had the opportunity to try a glass - here's what I thought.

Essentially, Eleven has become an inscrutable beer. Unsurprising, perhaps, owing to the wide variety of ingredients used in its creation. Every sip yielded a different combination of flavors and aromas. First it was alcohol-spicy and roasty, then it was sweet and smoky. Sometimes it tasted very bitter (though never hoppy - the hops have become quite muted during the aging process). Occasionally there was a hint of oxidation, but the beer otherwise holds up surprisingly well.

Stylistically, I thought the initially-released Eleven was a very extreme Black IPA. Now, it tastes more like a roasty, smoky barleywine - a malt-forward, alcohol-powered sipper that never leaves any doubt as to its origins or potency.

If you're in the area, it's well worth a try. It's not often one gets to sample a keg-aged beer of this complexity. The price is $4 for a .25L pour - well worth the experience, in my opinion.