Stack Brewing Les Portes L'Enfer Side by Side

Les Portes de L'Enfer: Side by Side

Stack Brewing Company

Sudbury, Ontario, Canada

Independent Microbrewery

Twitter: @Stackbrewing

Two beers for one tonight. I just stopped up in the Nickle City (AKA Sudbury) the Paris of Northern Ontario. I kid you not! More good stuff goes down in Sudbury than anywhere else around here. There is a thriving art community, a theatre community, a music community, There is a Cheese Shop! And thankfully, there is an amazing craft brewery. We go up once or twice a year to go to Science North, and Dynamic Earth... because we are nerds. And my visits would not be complete with out Cheese from the aforementioned Fromagerie Elgin, Drinks at Hardrock 42 the best craft beer bar north of Toronto (possibly). And last, but not least a visit to Stack Brewing. I left with 6 beers this time... stay tuned to this space.

Les Portes de L'Enfer (The Doors to Hell) is Stack's award winning biere de garde (Gold at the Ontario Brewing Awards in the Biere de Garde category and Bronze in the Canadian Brewing Awards) I tried to get some on my last trip to Sudbury but it was not long after the Ontario Brewing awards so the beer had all been snapped up. As it was a seasonal I had to wait for it to be brewed again and when I arrived in Sudbury this time, I was rewarded with a bonus a Portes de l'Enfer that had been barrel aged in Malivoire Winery's oak barrels. So tonight I present them to you side by side.

Onto the tasting.


# 238 Les Portes de L'Enfer

Biere de Garde 8.0% ABV Brown Glass Bottle 500 ml (16 oz).
$6.00 (Canadian) At The Brewery

Pours a hazy chestnut brown with a tan head made up of small bubbles. Aroma is clove fresh hay some bread malt sugars and a touch of earthiness. First sip is toasted wood,caramelised sugars, some coffee and toffee. wheat notes sneak out underneath the bolder flavours along with a hint of bitter green hops. Rich and complex, very chewy, a good strong mouthfeel. Aeration brings out the darker breadiness, deep rye or pumpernickel tones with lots of toasted sugars and some pleasant bitterness from the hops finishing in a slight black tea taste.

# 239 Les Portes de L'Enfer Barrel Aged

Oak Aged Biere de Garde 8.0% ABV Brown Glass Bottle 500 ml (16 oz).
$6.00 (Canadian) At The Brewery

Pours a lighter chestnut that it's un-aged counterpart with a hint of red running through it. Head is a similar tan colour but the bubbles are much finer. Aroma is a stellar red wine and oak wood nose a slight berry, and red fruit aroma with hints of grape must and yeast. First sip is... WOW. Very smooth, creamy toasted oak and vanilla mixed with the breadiness of the beer. Taste similar to a Cabernet Sauvignion, some slight tannins, some tartaric acid and the barest hint of hops underneath. The fruit and the bread give it a sort of "jam sandwich" flavour which is not unpleasant at all The barrel aging has softened the beer and smoothed out the flavour profile, drawing out the finish into a nice long hum of wheat and fruit. Slightly tart on the attack, it has just enough sugar in it to balance it out, and not be cloying. Aeration gives us a rounded creamy oaky explosion, slightly nuty, bready, and yeasty.

Impressions: Fail, So-so, Pass, Exceptional 


Regular                                     Barrel Aged

Cost: 5/6 PASS                           Cost: 5/6 PASS
Colour: 5/6 PASS                        Colour: 5/6 PASS
Beer Style: 6/6 EXCEPTIONAL     Beer Style: 6/6 EXCEPTIONAL
Re-Order:  6/6 EXCEPTIONAL      Re-Order:  6/6 EXCEPTIONAL
Experience:  6/6 EXCEPTIONAL   Experience:  6/6 EXCEPTIONAL


Final Thoughts:


Two Great beers great for two different reasons. Honestly it is hard to tell that they started out as the same beer. While the regular one is a wonderful example of a biere de garde, the oak aged is all about what the barrel brings to the product, it's magical transformation. Though equal, I would say that the barrel aged beer slightly edges out the regular on my palate. lovely smooth and fruity. I could drink that beer for days.


Cheers
CJT


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Rant...

Well here it is more time has slipped away from me. Sadly, dear Reader I left you in the middle of Canada Beer Month, as my work schedule overtook my play schedule, among other things and I have not been able to touch virtual pencil to virtual paper in quite sometime. As well, on a more personal note I have been thinking long and hard about the future of this blog. I rapidly approach my 5th year writing my bar stool pontifications and it makes me wonder how much further should I take this blog. Should I be devoting more time to it? How much of my life can I let it consume? Should I be looking to move  toward a more full time approach? What about furthering my education in the Barley Arts? Should I get my Prud'homme Certificate, and or my Cicerone? (I have never made bones about my experience with beer... I am, in real life, a Chef, and I have many years experience in beer and beer sales at various restaurants and hotels. I have an above average palate and a passion for good beer... I am not an expert). So I have been stuck in a loop... sitting down to stare at my blog, and letting the beers pile up in the Fridge of Fame (until my Loving partner in Crime, The Queen of Pint Jockey Headquarters has basically intimated that either I start blogging again or she puts the beers AND me out for recycling...)

Where do we go from here? I'm not sure. I started the blog as a necessary creative outlet, as much as an excuse to drink more beer and keep track of it. Some days I don't feel I can do the blog justice... It's hard in my little corner of the world to come across a lot of variety of beers. My hands are tied by the ordering managers at the LCBO and the Beer Store. Thankfully Sawdust City Brewery is just a quick walk away and they do bring in guest beers, but some days I feel too reliant on their products for material. There is the odd time we head down to Toronto, and the inevitable mad dash into one of the many LCBOs there, where I come out... often 30 minutes later, clutching bags of beers and nursing 50 to 60 dollar hole in my pocket. I also nipped into Stack Brewery this weekend because we were in Sudbury, 33 dollars later... I came out with 6 beers (stay tuned!) I enjoy the festivals, when work allows me the time, I made it to OCB week last year and this year to Session Muskoka, which I will talk about in another post (better late than never! there were some excellent beers there!). I would like to go more and report more on the festivals, but somehow time never allows.

Which brings me to the last part of my rant. How I lost over 2 weeks trying, and failing to upgrade to Windows 10. My wonderful hand built computer Dzunukwa, who has given me 2 years of reliable service (except for that time that Perry (the cat) knocked my laptop off of the back of the computer and snapped off the connectors to my video card necessitating a new card), was due for an upgrade and when Win 10's free rollout came, I jumped on it... a little too soon I would guess. It trashed my computer It erased my old copy of Windows 7, it booted only to a black screen. None of my files were accessible. I spent hours online reading up on how to fix it. I was not alone this was happening to a lot of people, especially people with custom machines. So finally I gave up to the point where I needed to do a clean install and start again. The computer wiped my hard drive and then got stuck in an endless install loop: load a bit, shut down, reboot. I was so pissed I installed Unbuntu the open source software... yeah... that didn't go so well either. Despite what I have been told that Unbuntu is supposed to be easy and virtually bullet proof, it was anything but. Nothing would install, no antivirus, could not update my video card drivers, my web browser crashed repeatedly. So today I pulled the hard drive out of my laptop and installed that. So I have a semi-functional computer again, patched together with duct tape and promises of glory... So very frustrated.

Thank you for letting me vent... I needed that. I hope you are all still with me. I have lots of beer to do. If you have thoughts or words of wisdom for me please leave them in the comments below. I would like to know how you feel about this blog and what you would like to see in the future.

Well I need a beer... How about you?

Cheers
CJT