Southern Tier Brewing Company: Samoa This

Southern Tier Brewing Company: Samoa This

Style: Imperial Stout

Special Notes: Inspired by the Girl Scout Cookie that shares its name. Notes of sweet chocolate, caramel, and coconut with an underlying flavor of shortbread

ABV: 10.0

IBU: 40

Availability: Rotating availability

@untappd says: 4.14/5

Are you ready for Samoa great beer on the Windowsill?

If there’s something Southern Tier Brewing Company does well, it’s dessert beers. That’s what their Blackwater series is all about. From barrel-aged ales with fruit to thick and creamy sweet stouts, they do the after-dinner-brew so well!

Southern Tier Brewing Company: Samoa This
Don’t you just want Samoa this great beer? (Credit: Martin Stezano/Beers on Windowsills)

Tonight, I hit the town with a few coworkers for some food and drink. Unfortunately, the bar we went to didn’t have craft beer. It did have really awesome onion rings and a surprisingly excellent lamb gyro, but I had to settle for non-craft. When I got home, my wife and I found some cheesecake in the fridge, courtesy of my mother-in-law, so I decided to rectify the dinner wrong by reaching for a dessert beer in my fridge. It was the Samoa This.

If i had to choose one word to describe the Samoa This, it would be decadent. It’s an imperial sweet/milk stout brewed with pink Himalayan sea salt and natural chocolate, with coconut and caramel flavors added. It’s a perfect dessert beer—sweet, creamy and indulgent. It’s Southern Tier’s interpretation of the Samoa cookie, and I gotta say they did a pretty good job! I think we know what @ctbeerandcookies would pair this one with, right?

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Southern Tier Brewing Company: Choklat Oranj (2016)

Southern Tier Brewing Company: Choklat Oranj

Style: Imperial Stout

Special Notes: Brewed with orange peels and bittersweet belgian chocolate.

Hops: Columbus

Malts: 2-Row Malt, Caramel Malt, Debittered Black Malt, Chocolate Malt

ABV: 10.0

IBU: N/A

Availability: No longer available

@untappd says: 4.18/5

It’s the last day of winter, so we’re repping stout season on the sill today! Spring is at 5:58PM Eastern, so get an IPA ready!

The saga that led to me drinking this beer is like no other in the history of the world. OK, that’s an exaggeration, but it took me a long time to get to it! Allow me to explain.

This past August, my buddy @galleycookinbeersnob gifted me a mixed 6-pack containing a bottle of the Choklat Oranj from Southern Tier Brewing Company that was bottled on March 16, 2016. It went into my fridge, where it was then lost for several months, until another friend, @marcs108, asked me if I knew of any stouts that were made with chocolate and orange. Not only did I know one, I actually had one! This was about a month ago.

Southern Tier Brewing Company: Choklat Oranj
The ingredients are right there on the label. Chocolate and orange. Boom! (Credit: Martin Stezano/Beers on Windowsills)

This past week, I took a trip to my local beer spot because they had more in stock. It turns out they had a 4-pack of the very same batch of Choklat Oranj sitting on the shelf. I picked it up and split it with my buddy—you read about this exchange in my Vapor Ringz post from a couple of days ago. This past Friday, one day shy of the beer’s third birthday, I finally cracked a bottle and gave it a try. Three years after it was bottled, and seven months after it had been given to me.

Three-year-old beer? Probably tasted bad, right? Wrong, son. This Choklat Oranj stout aged incredibly well. All the promised flavors were there. It was super chocolaty with a really nice twang of orange. The creaminess was there too, as was the sweetness. Just a solid stout. I was almost ashamed that it had taken me this long to crack open the bottle. It’s currently not in production—the last time it was made was 2017—but here’s hoping they bring it back. Awesome release from Southern Tier’s Blackwater Series. I really enjoyed it!

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. Southern Tier Brewing Company: Choklat Oranj (2016) . It’s the last day of winter, so we’re repping stout season on the sill today! Spring is at 5:58PM Eastern, so get an IPA ready! . The saga that led to me drinking this beer is like no other in the history of the world. OK, that’s an exaggeration, but it took me a long time to get to it! Allow me to explain. . This past August, my buddy @galleycookinbeersnob gifted me a mixed 6-pack containing a bottle of the Choklat Oranj from Southern Tier Brewing Company that was bottled on March 16, 2016. It went into my fridge, where it was then lost for several months, until another friend, @marcs108, asked me if I knew of any stouts that were made with chocolate and orange. Not only did I know one, I actually had one! This was about a month ago. . This past week, I took a trip to my local beer spot because they had more in stock. It turns out they had a 4-pack of the very same batch of Choklat Oranj sitting on the shelf. I picked it up and split it with my buddy—you read about this exchange in my Vapor Ringz post from a couple of days ago. This past Friday, one day shy of the beer’s third birthday, I finally cracked a bottle and gave it a try. Three years after it was bottled, and seven months after it had been given to me. . Three-year-old beer? Probably tasted bad, right? Wrong, son. This Choklat Oranj stout aged incredibly well. All the promised flavors were there. It was super chocolaty with a really nice twang of orange. The creaminess was there too, as was the sweetness. Just a solid stout. I was almost ashamed that it had taken me this long to crack open the bottle. It’s currently not in production—the last time it was made was 2017—but here’s hoping they bring it back. Awesome release from Southern Tier’s Blackwater Series. I really enjoyed it! . ABV: 10.0, IBU: N/A, No longer available . @untappd says: 4.19/5

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Southern Tier Brewing Company: Warlock

Southern Tier Brewing Company: Warlock

Special Ingredients: Pumpkin, Pumpkin spice

ABV: 8.6%

IBU: 40

Availability: Limited seasonal

@untappd says: 3.97/5

It’s Halloween times 2! Did you get some good candy tonight?

Why pumpkins and candy on Halloween? We’re going back to those crazy Celts again for this one. It seems they loved carving faces into veggies as part of their harvest celebrations. Also in need for light, they started putting candles inside, too. Spooky and useful! These were eventually named Jack O’Lanterns by the Irish, who had a legend about a farmer named Jack who had made a bargain with the devil. When those immigrants arrived in America and found the land to be full of pumpkins, it was the natural choice for carving.

Now, let’s talk about the Warlock. I’ve had a lot of pumpkin beers in my day—typically ales—but this was my very first pumpkin stout. It was brewed to “enchant your palate,” and as a counterpoint to Southern Tier Brewing Company’s Imperial Pumking. It’s part of the breweries “Blackwater Series,” a more experimental series of brews that includes some of STBC’s most famous beers. The Warlock is huge on roasted malts with really good pumpkin and pumpkin spice notes that i loved. Also, that glass fit the entire 750 ml… so I only had one beer!

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Southern Tier Brewing Company: Rum Barrel Aged Pumking (2017)

Southern Tier Brewing Company: Rum Barrel Aged Pumking

Special Ingredients: Pumpkin

ABV: 9.5%

IBU: 25

Availability: Yearly, but not this version

@untappd says: 4.03/5

Part I of our Halloween Two-fer is on the Windowsill right now!

According to History.com, Halloween evolved from the ancient Celtic holiday of Samhain. It was celebrated from October 31 until November 1 to welcome in the end of the harvest and the beginning of the “darker half” of the year. Starting in the 8th century, November first became All Saints Day, and the night before became also known as All Hallows Eve… eventually Halloween. Somehow along the lines, candy, pumpkins and scary ghouls and goblins got involved too. Makes sense to me!

If you know me and my Windowsill, you know we love us some barrel-aged goodness. Because it’s Halloween, you know we have to come hard with a Pumpkin ale. Thanks to Southern Tier Brewing Company, I’m able to do both with one glorious ale—their Rum Barrel Aged Pumking. Last Halloween, we had the original Pumking. The barrel-aged version knocks that one out of the water. I loved how the booziness blended with the pumpkin. So perfect for the holiday!

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