Here’s a beer you don’t see every day (at least I don’t anyway): Spruce Campbell Stout with Spruce Tips by the Odd13 Brewing Company of Lafayette, Colorado. This brewery doesn’t sell its beer in Georgia, but I got a can of this rare stout recently from the always generous Dale Roberts.
A few things struck me about this beer before I even opened the can. It’s a full pint (I like that), and it seems Odd13 packages their beer in generic “tallboy” aluminum cans and applies labels to them (I like that too). It means I can peel them off and scan, as you can see I did with the image to the right.
The name here is a spoof on horror actor Bruce Campbell, and more on that in a few moments. If you ask me, the character on the label looks more like Mitt Romney, especially with the blue blazer he’s wearing. I’m not sure which of the two gets credit for the bigger horror show, but there you go.
Odd13 doesn’t seem sure what to call this beer stylistically. On the can, of course, they call it a stout, but on their website it’s called an Imperial Brown Ale. Perhaps it changes from year to year; one thing is for sure, it’s a seasonal beer released in December. Odd13 says this about it on their website:
Spruce Campbell is an ordinary guy. He's as ordinary as a guy with a chainsaw for a hand and a penchant for chopping down demonic spruce trees can be. When he's not fighting hordes of the undead, he's enjoying Odd13 Beer.
Ingredients from the website:
Fermentables: 2-Row, Munich, Simpsons Dark Crystal, Crisp Pale Chocolate, Simpsons Chocolate
Hops: Chinook, Spruce Tips
Odd13 Spruce Campbell Stout with Spruce Tips has an alcohol content of 7% by volume with 24 IBUs. Spruce beer was common in colonial times in America, as an alternative to hopped beer. It’s an oddity today (pun intended) but examples do pop up here and there. I enjoyed my can out on my patio on a pleasant early April evening.
Odd13 Spruce Campbell Stout with Spruce Tips pours to a jet black color with a thick creamy tan head and a rich chocolaty nose. (But no spruce yet). Taking a sip, I get a big hit of chocolaty goodness (and who doesn't like chocolate?), a medium to full body, coffee and other roasty goodness (but still no spruce), on into the finish where...there it is! The spruce arrives at last, very piney, not like piney hops piney but like, real pine piney. It tastes like a Christmas tree smells, if you covered a Christmas tree in chocolate.
All in all, a very nicely done beer. I love spruce beers and I’m always excited to try one, and this is a good one that I will call a stout, since I seem to have two choices stylistically.
And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.