Beer Profile: Yazoo’s Fortuitous

Profiled by Ken Carman for professorgoodales.net

I really, really, really wished I had bought a second bottle for my beer tastings in the Adirondacks this summer. Black as all hell, full brownish head that fades, yet clings at the end as if it doesn’t want to give up. A bit pillow. There’s a barrel sense to this: bourbon barrel-ish. that lingers. Medium body that, with all that’s going on here, might fool some as “full.”

I have had many Yazoo beers. This is the best, and the most interesting, I have ever had. A damn shame it’s a one off. Nose a bit sweet, with malt background; somewhat roasted. Bourbon nose dominants, with a woody: almost oak, sense. Pours as if it is a lot heavier than it is.

Taste: bourbon, lactic, roast very much in the background. This is a very delicate, a tad sweet, and a beyond “pleasant” quaff. It’s not as much dark as it is multi-layered.

As it warms the roast settles under the lactic, the Bourbon. Head lasts longer when warmer.

If you’re not into Belgian, you’ll still enjoy. If you’re not into cask conditioned ale, or bourbon, you’ll still like it. Everything is in balance: nothing over the top. And being one who loves over the top; this is one of the few times I would say: a good thing.

The bad news? It’s gone. All gone. As you may have read in Brandon’s Jones’ article on Fortuitous, This brew started out as a mistake and wound up being a special release that took a lot of work, and experimentation, to get just right.

I could toss in a whole bunch of fruit references, as many reviewers do, ad nauseam. This does have a fruity sense to it: but that I have always felt going on and on about such things doesn’t do either the fruit in question, if it’s really in the brew, or the uniqueness of that brew, any favor. While I could say the tartness is a lime/grapefruit cross: it’s NOT. Those fruits are unique, as is the yeast and bourbon-driven fruitiness in Fortuitous.

If Linus Hall doesn’t do this again he is missing something. This, in this reviewer’s opinion, could wind up being listed as one of the best beers in the world.