{"id":2129,"date":"2011-03-22T00:02:03","date_gmt":"2011-03-21T11:02:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/?p=2129"},"modified":"2011-04-06T00:28:04","modified_gmt":"2011-04-05T12:28:04","slug":"bear-republic-big-bear-black-stout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2011\/03\/22\/bear-republic-big-bear-black-stout\/","title":{"rendered":"Bear Republic ‘Big Bear Black Stout’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bear<\/a>
Bear Republic 'Big Bear Black Stout'<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I’m at a bit of a loss with the name of this one. Something<\/em> in it seems superfluous, certainly. It’s those three b-words in a row. I can make it work with any two of them,1<\/sup> but all three together just unexpectedly trips me up like an abandoned skateboard in darkened hallway.<\/p>\n

The Wellington weather was beginning its turn towards the grey-and-drizzly, providing a nice excuse (as if I really needed one) for staying for another and continuing on my recent run of tasty dark beers. Triple-B was on tap and when something both interesting and imported appears in front of you at Hashigo it’s best to jump in without delay; these things don’t often last long.<\/p>\n

After the doubly-peculiar goodness of ‘Black Emperor’<\/a> (it being a lager and conspicuously-hopped, both of which set it apart from the majority of dark craft beers it otherwise superficially resembles), ‘Big Bear’ is a bit closer to straight-up-and-down stouty stuff. It’s boozier than usual at 8.1%, and that strength also manifests in a definite sweetness<\/em> — the taste is as big and full\u00a0as the overloaded name would imply \/ require, but the traditional burnt-and-bitter edges are softened right off. This is a friendly<\/em> animal of the ursine persuasion, for sure. You merely need to keep one eye on your pic-a-nic basket; you don’t have to immediately run for your life — or frantically wrack your brain trying to remember whether you’re supposed to run from a bear or stand your ground or throw some toothpaste to distract it, or whatever-the-hell confusing and forgettable ‘survival advice’ people on the TV keep giving us<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If anything<\/em>, it’s too friendly. For all its bigness and solidity, I drank mine way too easily; the clumsy name<\/em> was more of a mouthful than the glass.\u00a0The obvious solution of going for a bigger vessel would quickly get reckless, given that it’s stronger than the average beer — just to throw in one more Yogi reference before moving on.<\/p>\n

Verbatim:<\/strong> Bear Republic ‘Big Bear’ Black Stout 22\/3\/11 also on tap @ HZ. 8.1% Shitty weather outside (i.e., my type of rainy drizzle) and an Odd Day, so more good beer. It seems like one of the Bs in the name is superfluous, but I’m not sure which. Any 2 seems to work. This is proper serious, but not at all scary. Quite an easy nose, but my previous may have something to do with that. Nicely full, sweet-edged body. Rich, but not burnt + bitter. My only “complaint” isn’t one at all: it’s way<\/span> too easy to drink.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Bear<\/a>
Diary II entry #78.1, Bear Republic 'Big Bear' Black Stout<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"Bear<\/a>
Diary II entry #78.2, Bear Republic 'Big Bear' Black Stout<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n

1: “Big Bear Stout”; “Black Bear Stout”; “Big Black Stout” — they all<\/em> seem sensible. And they certainly seem sufficient<\/em>, you’d have to say.<\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m at a bit of a loss with the name of this one. Something in it seems superfluous, certainly. It’s those three b-words in a row. I can make it work with any two of them,1 but all three together just unexpectedly trips me up like an abandoned skateboard in darkened hallway. The Wellington weather … Continue reading Bear Republic ‘Big Bear Black Stout’<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[6,20,11],"class_list":["post-2129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diary","tag-pages","tag-united-states","tag-stout"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2208,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2011\/03\/26\/golden-bear-black-magic\/","url_meta":{"origin":2129,"position":0},"title":"Golden Bear ‘Black Magic’","author":"Phil","date":"March 26, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The night before writing this up, I was going through the neglected second half of Diary One and getting it all scanned. I found my first mention of Golden Bear in the entry for Beervana 2009. It's hardly auspicious; a pale ale of theirs is down as the day's only\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Golden Bear 'Black Magic' IPA","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Golden-Bear-Black-Magic-IPA-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":136,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2004\/08\/20\/carlow-oharas-celtic-stout\/","url_meta":{"origin":2129,"position":1},"title":"Carlow \u2018O\u2019Hara\u2019s Celtic Stout\u2019","author":"Phil","date":"August 20, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Verbatim: O'Hara's Celtic Stout. 12oz, 4.3%, <$5, 20\/08\/04, at home. Same brewery as above: Carlow, Ireland. Good n black, but broad, tan bubbles which went wandering too soon. More like uber-dark ale, really. Won a gold at BIIA, 2000. Goes just great with Futurama. G. flinches at the coffee-ness. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"O'Hara's Celtic Stout","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Diary-1014-OHaras-Celtic-Stout-300x222.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":561,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2008\/11\/05\/invercargill-pitch-black-stout\/","url_meta":{"origin":2129,"position":2},"title":"Invercargill ‘Pitch Black’ Stout","author":"Phil","date":"November 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Verbatim: Invercargill Brewery 'Pitch Black' Stout. Again from the hand pumps at Old Malty, and in many ways one step further down Black Beer Boulevard from the aforementioned (and aforedrunken) Tuatara Porter. Bigger, darker, and stouty, basically. But still (I think) fairly accessible. Something of a favourite for a few\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Invercargill 'Pitch Black', handpulled","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Invercargill-Pitch-Black-handpulled-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":544,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2008\/11\/05\/emersons-oatmeal-stout\/","url_meta":{"origin":2129,"position":3},"title":"Emerson’s Oatmeal Stout","author":"Phil","date":"November 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Verbatim: Emerson's Oatmeal Stout. This is how I started my day, at 10.00am, watching CNN for coverage of the U.S. Presidential Election. As we all know by now, the Good Guy won. It pours as absolute darkness in a glass, and is ludicrously smooth to drink, with a great big\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Emerson's Oatmeal Stout","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Emersons-Oatmeal-Stout-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":565,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2008\/11\/05\/dux-de-lux-souwester-stout-three-boys-pils\/","url_meta":{"origin":2129,"position":4},"title":"Dux de Lux ‘Sou’wester’ Stout & Three Boys Pils","author":"Phil","date":"November 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Verbatim: Dux de Lux 'Sou'wester' Stout. The Dux was nominated in the \"Best Pub\" category this year at the bar awards, and so was a certain little pub in which this photograph was taken. But the Dux won. And they brew. Fairly well. The Stout isn't nearly as smooth as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Dux de Lux Souwester & Three Boys Pils","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Dux-de-Lux-Souwester-Three-Boys-Pils-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3908,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2012\/05\/09\/st-ambroise-oatmeal-stout\/","url_meta":{"origin":2129,"position":5},"title":"St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout","author":"Phil","date":"May 9, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"My Canada Day last year then continued with this, a Quebecker Oatmeal Stout, there at my desk at home (with the Diary\u00a0itself and my rather-lovely Hashigo Zake bottle opener visible behind it, and it perched on ludicrously-extravagant Moa Beer leather-and-felt coaster). And, just for a sense of continuity and appropriateness\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"St-Ambroise Oatmeal Stout (My house, 8 May 2012)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/St-Ambroise-Oatmeal-Stout1-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2129"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2188,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2129\/revisions\/2188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}