Baxter’s beer for Colorado

WSU fans are no strangers to watching football in cold and wet weather. Still, that first game each season when the weather turns and suddenly you have to put on layers and bring your waterproof gear is a bit of a shock to the system. That is particularly rough when there is nearly a month between games.

To help deal with the cold, Baxter suggested a nice high-alcohol, dark and tasty beer to keep your insides warm. That is why he has went with Love in Shadows Pastry Stout from Culmination Brewing out of Portland. Here’s us describing the beer in video form (or here if you are on Apple News):

This is part of a series of collaborations that Culmination did for its fourth anniversary back in May. Love in Shadows was brewed with Great Notion Brewing, which one could consider the kinds of pastry stouts in the Pacific Northwest.

What is a pastry stout? The term was coined by beer blogger Alex Kidd of dontdrinkbeer.com as a pejorative. He was poking fun at the rise of intentionally underattenuated, thick, sweet stouts that had grown in popularity but didn’t taste much like traditional offerings.

Funny enough, Florida of all places is the king of pastry stouts. Many breweries there are brewing these high gravity beers loaded with fruit, vanilla, and chocolate.

This particular stout was brewed with chocolate, vanilla, raspberry, and cherry. It’s about five to six months old at this point, and the dominant flavor left is definitely cherry. Vanilla always seems to be the first to go, unless a brewery used insane amounts of it.

Love in Shadows isn’t too sweet, and the body is such that it is highly drinkable. It’s well done and good example that the style doesn’t just have to be a straight up imitation candy bar. Check out Culmination Brewing cans in your bottle shop if you live in the Seattle or Portland areas. They make good stuff.

That’s what Baxter and I will be drinking to get ready for the Cougs vs. Buffs. What will you be having?