Sound the fanfare! Crash the drums! Commence the theme tune from The Terminator!
The Brewed Awakening Hermannator vertical returns for another year! (Or four.)
Yes, Hermy has been out since October but it always takes a lot of courage (and childcare costs. And snacks) to mount one of these tastings.
But that’s piffle compared to what Vancouver Island Brewery has to go through at the tail end of every summer to get the latest vintage of Hermannator on the shelves. VIB brewer Garritt Lalonde talked a bit more about this mighty brew in a recent video we shot at the Tap & Barrel.
As always, there’s a great consistency in the colour of each vintage – a dark mahogany with garnet-amber highlights – and just minor differences in the beige tone of each head.
Read my account of last year’s 2010-13 vertical here.
To work!
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Beer Cat surveys the task ahead.
2014
In all honesty, this year’s Hermannator was probably the most delicious fresh batch I’ve tasted (admittedly that only goes back to 2009 for me).
On the nose is nutty dark chocolate, some medium roast coffee, a deep breadiness and lightly fruity spice.
The lively carbonation that I find can mask a lot of the flavours in younger vintages carries a lovely richness this year. It almost seems to bring out more of the full, fruit-laced chocolate flavours and even a little stone fruit before a bitter choc finish. Overall it’s very smooth, full and gently creamy. (4.5)
2013, aged one year
Big carbonation again here. Beautifully fruity on the nose, with some umami, salt and subtle sour notes appearing too.
It’s beautifully rich and full flavoured in the mouth. There’s stone fruit up front, some nutty chocolate, a little coffee, a big breadiness, and raisin flavours come through big in the finish.
What a difference a year makes — this was altogether rather tame last year. (4.5)
2012, aged two years
Again, very effervescent, but the head clears fairly quickly to the thinnest of rims. There’s a lovely balanced aroma of estery red fruits, stone fruits and treacle, with a hint of umami.
Nutty chocolate-laced treacle and rich red fruit dominate here, while there are hits of brown sugar and tobacco, too. However, the flavours fade a little disappointingly into the mid before rallying in a decently full finish of bitter chocolate and red fruit. (3.5)
2011, aged three years
Effervescent and maintains decent rim of head. The nose is full of luscious treacly, leathery depths with some umami and a saline edge.
Flavourwise, however, it’s comparatively weak. Light chocolate, treacle, light fruit, vanilla and subtle tobacco appear, before a finish full of added subtleties. (3.5)
WE CAN REBUILD HIM:
Quadrannator 2011-14
This is rapidly turning into one of my favourite beers. Not sure what it is about Hermannator, but a 1:1:1:1 blend really captures the best parts of each vintage like few other beers do.
Here, the carbonation is rich, creamy and dense. There’s a lovely, creamy treacly-toffee fruity aroma, that also has oaky, light umami and tobacco. notes. In the mouth there’s a great balance of treacle, fruit and subtle oaky tobacco. (5)
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Quadrannator aside, it was a slightly disappointing vertical this year, mostly because the older beers didn’t perform as well as they have in the past. The 2011 and 2012 seemed to hit a peak last year, so maybe they’ll rebound again.
The 2014 and 2013 just about made up for it. Certainly, the most recent batch has a lot of potential ahead.
But how will it fare in my first ever five-year vertical next year? I guess we’ll just have to start counting the days until October…
Get all my tasting notes of Hermannators of varying vintages in the original Brewed Awakening review.
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Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
