Quercus Vitis Humulus from Otter Creek

Let me start by pointing out how many times I had to check the label of the Otter Creek Brewing's Quercus Vitis Humulus bottle to make sure I spelled it correctly.  I'm still not positive it's right.  Oh well, on to the beer.

This beer will henceforth be known as QVH for simplicity's sake.  The abbreviation though is where the simplicity ends.  QVH is a part of their Imperial Series and with good reason.  This is a big beer.  This is a beer that makes you sit up and take notice...and immediately become a bit confused trying to figure out what you're tasting.

The description on the label calls this a "French-Oak-Aged Ale brewed with French Grape Juice, Fermented with Champagne Yeast."  Yeah, this is a unique one.  I originally tried this at the brewery in Middlebury, VT.  I obviously liked it, because I came home with two bottles of this (plus several other excellent Otter Creek beers) and sometime recently procured yet another bottle.  It still confuses me a bit though, and that is part of why I love beer.  Subtle temperature changes or different food I've eaten or who knows what else have made it taste a bit different each time.  I think I uncovered a bit more tonight though.

QVH pours a nice golden color with a moderate, slightly off-white head that disappeared after a few minutes.  The smell is that of a powerful, big beer...barley-wine-esque.  As a matter of fact, it began life as a barley-wine.  For the uninitiated, barley-wines are a style of heavy hitting ale.  They tend to have high alcohol contents and a richer, more viscous feel and taste to them.  This fits the alcohol bill at 12% a.b.v.  It also has that familiar viscous feel to it, but in a way I'm not completely used to with these types of beers.  I can only guess that there is some difference introduced by the fact that they brew a barley-wine, then add grape juice, then ferment it again with champagne yeast.  I won't begin to guess at exactly what is going on in there, but Otter Creek got something right here for sure.

Sure, it's a big beer, it's high a.b.v., it's viscous.  So what.  How does it taste?  This beer isn't very bitter at all to my taste buds, but it sure is rich.  I was sitting with a friend, enjoying this brew, and think I figured out what the underlying current is in this beer...it's that grape juice.  It's there, but in a much more concentrated form than you're normally used to.  It adds sweetness and texture at the same time, with  some subtle grape flavors for good measure.  But, don't think that it tastes like grapes.  This is first and foremost a beer, albeit a beer with kind of a flashy personality.

I'm going to give this beer a B+.  I've had better barley-wines, but the grape juice gives it something the others don't have.  This is a very solid beer from Otter Creek.  For something a bit more mainstream and more easily found, definitely try their Copper Ale, Alpine Black IPA and Stovepipe Porter.