This past Saturday, I - along with some good friends - ventured over to DC’s newest (and greatest) beer haven, ChurchKey, to enjoy a few brews and hang out with Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head. Aside from the awesomeness of just being there, Sam brought along a firkin of Black Thai - usually a rare brewpub exclusive. The bar was packed, but we were lucky enough to get a booth for the tapping.

The Venue

ChurchKey is the newest venture by the Neighborhood Restaurant Group. [Full disclosure: ChurchKey is also my current place of employment, so this review may be a tad biased] Featuring 50 ever-changing taps, 5 cask ‘real ales’, and ~500 bottles at any given time, it is a beer-lovers playground. And unlike some other DC establishments, ChurchKey does a pretty good job of actually having everything on their list.

Aside from the best beer list this side of - well, anywhere, ChurchKey has some pretty fantastic bar food as well. We treated ourselves to some fried risotto balls, sweetbread poppers, a BLT flatbread, and the highlight of the night, Fig, Prosciutto & Gorgonzola pizza.

ChurchKey (and it’s downstairs little sister, Birch & Barley) has received enough press in the last month, so I won’t go too into detail. If you’re in the DC area and interested, check out The Washington Post’s writeup, or some of the stellar BeerAdvocate reviews.

Anyway, let’s talk beer.

The Style

Black Thai is a 9% ABV imperial stout brewed with edamame, Thai basil, and blackberries. I wrote about basic Imperial Stouts in my Ten Fidy review, but to call this simply a stout is to compare aged smoked gouda to Kraft singles. Aside from the rather unique additives, Black Thai is fermented with lager yeast (instead of ale yeast, which stouts are typically brewed with). I won’t go into detail, but you can read about the differences between Ale & Lager here.

Finally, if a soy-basil-blackberry-imperial-stout wasn’t off the wall - excuse me, ‘Off-Centered’ - enough for you, the beer was served from a cask. What this means is that it was unfiltered, unpasteurized, and naturally-carbonated (as opposed to the forced-carbonation that normally comes from kegs). This is also known as Real Ale. What you get from cask-conditioning is a beer that’s a bit warmer, a bit thicker on the mouth, and a whole lot more complex.

The Tasting

After having the description above bouncing around in my head for the better part of a week, anticipation was high as the 7pm tapping rolled around. I can only imagine everyone else in the bar felt the same, since it seemed that the entire cask was consumed in about 30 minutes.

Pours a creamy-opaque brown, with about one finger of tannish head. This looks like no beer I’ve ever seen before, more like a Starbucks’ mocha than anything else.

Aroma is big and spicy with a definite basil foreground. There’s also a very faint medicinal smell, increasing as the beer warms.

The first thing I taste is coffee, followed by a thick tart fruit, then a very herbal finish. A slight soy aftertaste. Something of an iodine bitterness towards the end as well. Very low bitterness, practically non-existent hops. The blackberries take over where I imagine hops should be, which creates an interesting fruity tart/sourness to offset the sweetness.

Flavor fills the mouth. It’s quite full-bodied, but not thick or syrupy as high-abv beers tend to get. While the aftertaste lasts a very long time, the beer itself washes down fairly smooth.

Not very drinkable. One pint was interesting, but two would be hard to swallow. I don’t necessarily agree, but the rest of the table felt that the beer tasted like some kind of weird New-Agey health drink.

This beer tastes exactly like an aggregate of it’s ingredients, each one lined up right after the other. There isn’t much blending, much to my dismay. It’s complex, but not incredibly nuanced. Interesting, but not great. The best thing I can say about Black Thai is that it’s an incredibly inventive and challenging beer, which I absolutely love. I wish I could speak as well to the flavor.

6.9/10

As far as I know, only one cask of Black Thai has ever existed, and it met it’s makers on Saturday. So, unless you were at ChurchKey last weekend, you’re out of luck. Fortunately, the regular keg version will be available at Dogfish Head’s Rehoboth, DE brewpub for a (probably very limited) while.

Also imbibed

-Weihenstephan 1809 Berliner Weisse - fantastic sour wheat ale. Lemony and grassy. Super refreshing and clean finish. 8.8/10

-Uerige Doppelsticke - Raisiny sweet dark Altbier. Decent. 7.5/10

-de Regenboog Vuuve - Unfiltered hazy weiss, with just a hint of citrus tartness. Crisp, coriander, herbs. I didn’t think much initially, but upon a second tasting I really warmed up to this beer. 9/10

-Ola Dubh Special 18 Reserve (cask) - Old Ale aged in 18-year Scotch barrels, served ‘real’ from the cask. Sadly, a bit of a disappointment. Tasted like a slightly earthy stout. Far too light in body. Metallic, tin-can bitterness. Strange brew. Perhaps it could use some more aging. 6/10

-BrewDog Padadox Isle of Arran (cask) - (read about the Paradox series) Imperial stout aged in single-malt whisky barrels from the Isle of Arran distillery. Huge, thick, sticky. Fantastic feel, and the full flavor to back it up. Dark malty stout, with some serious smokey oaky (didn’t mean to rhyme) character. A ton of chocolate espresso up-front, but plenty of subtlety from the barrels. Wood, vanilla, smoke, earth. This is what I expected Ola Dubh to taste like. 10/10