10 Barrel Brewing x Protect Our Winters: PRAY FOR POW

So I talked about 10 Barrel’s PRAY FOR POW Winter Stout in our October edition of “Stuff We Like,” and (in proper BLISTER fashion), I wanted to say a bit more about the beer here, largely, because I love this beer. And I should say, I was not expecting to love this beer.

For a bit of background, we get hit up all the time with press releases about everything from skis to apparel, to movies, and sometimes, beer. Often, we just have to hit the delete button. But when we were sent a note about this PRAY FOR POW Winter Stout and were offered to have a few sent to try, I thought we should — it’s for a good cause, you know? Admittedly, I was under the impression that this was something 10 Barrel whipped up pretty quickly to support Protect Our Winters. Again, good cause, but I was not assuming that this would be a great product.

I stand corrected.

First, this recipe (10 Barrel’s take on an American Stout) is, according to 10 Barrel, “based on an American Stout recipe originally created by brewer Shawn Kelso, and is one of 10 Barrel’s most award-winning beers. This recipe has won more than 10 medals in judged competition, including multiple medals at the World Beer Cup and Great American Beer Festival.”

This Winter Stout is 7% ABV, 60 IBU.

And, here’s where it gets personal. (And subjective.)

My thing with stouts: I typically tend to dislike stouts that are less than ~5% ABV. If I’m going to drink a dark beer, I do not want it to taste water-y. That’s fine for a light lager or a pilsner, but not a stout (at least in my humble opinion and to my humble palate).

Then again, this past Friday I was at the Brick Oven with some friends, and I went with a very big barley wine (~14% ABV) that finished really, really sweet. Too sweet for my tastes.

I’ve tried a number of other stouts over the past month, and none of them have been as balanced — while still being full-bodied — as 10 Barrel’s PRAY FOR POW.

(And I can also say that I think I have identified my least favorite stout in the world — not that I’ve tried every one, I just can’t imagine anything being worse than the peanut butter milk stout I tried — smelled like a Reese’s peanut butter cup, tasted like peanut-butter perfume.)

Again, these things are subjective for sure, but with PRAY FOR POW, I may have found my personal stout sweet spot.

It’s also worth noting that our managing editor, Luke Koppa, is a big fan for many of the same reasons. In his words, he’d describe the PRAY FOR POW stout as “very well balanced — not too sweet, not too bitter, not too light, not too heavy.”

And we’d both be very curious to have some of you try it and weigh in.

You can use the beer finder at the 10 Barrel link above (just scroll down to the bottom of the page, or you can also find PRAY FOR POW at 10 Barrel’s Pubs this fall. Boise just kicked off 10 Barrel’s ‘Pray For Snow Parties’ on October 30th; the party in Bend is on November 13th; and the party in Denver is on December 4th.