Steam Fired Stout

     Henry Gorgas is a Renaissance man.  Henry is an engineer, inventor, artist, tinkerer and now a zymurgist.  After a career with Lockheed Martin, building B-1 Bombers, Henry went recreational in 1988 and started tinkering with experimental aircraft in his own workshop in Western Oregon.  He sells fully assembled "RV aircraft" and Build-it-yourself airplane kits.  Last Summer, Henry registered a patent for "Electrically Powered Bumper Cars Comprising Multiple Drive Wheels And Integral Hub Motors".  Henry never manages to settle down.  
     In 2008, Henry established Fire Mountain Brewery in his workshop space in Carlton, Oregon.  He moved from B-1 Bombers to 22oz Bottles of his Oregon Pale Ale and Steam Fired Stout.  I was able to procure one of Henry's first bottlings of Steam Fired Stout a year after it had hit the market.  The bottle, already dusty from a few months on the shelf at John's Marketplace in Multnomah Village, went home with me and straight into my beer cellar.
     A couple of years in storage ticked by.  I unearthed this treasure from my cellar this morning and popped the cap at noon.  It's a holiday weekend; but drinking before noon is still bad form.  Unless your camping, fishing or still drunk from last night.
     The label proclaims this beer to be "brewed old school", and judging from the foaming action when this black beauty got exposed to air . . .I'd say that this stout got a pinch of sugar in the bottle, before the cap was affixed,  for some secondary fermentation.  I lost a third of the contents as it spewed forth it's thick starchy head from the top of the 22oz bottle.  The brew is dark as night; but has a light mouthfeel.  The head, as I mentioned was meringue stiff, khaki in color and sweet.  This stout is dry and silky as it slips past the front of your mouth and then pounces tangily on the back of your tongue.  Notes of coffee and licorice seesaw with a big oaky bouquet.  An exceptionally delicious beer.
     This beer is 7.6% as bottled; but easily pushes 10% after a few years.  Probably a good thing 6 or 7 ounces spilled out onto the table as I opened it; because the rest of it fit nicely into a pint glass.   And this pint is about all I can handle in the noon hour.
     Happy Independence Day!