In today’s world of ever-rising beer prices, it’s nice to know that you can sometimes get a bargain. Case in point, Harpoon 100 Barrel Series Session 45: Director’s Cut. The 100 Barrel Series is Harpoon’s showcase for small batches of one-off (and sometimes two-off) specialty beers. The beers are almost always tasty, and the price is nice, too at $5.99 for a 22 ounce bottle.

Director’s Cut is a black and tan, actually a blend of two beers, pale ale and stout. It’s a beer of relatively moderate alcohol content, only slightly stronger than most beers at 6.25% alcohol by volume, and has 38 IBUs. The name “Director’s Cut” is an allusion to two of the four members of Harpoon’s board of directors, Mark Edwards and Jim Perry, who came up with the beer.

Harpoon says of Director’s Cut on their website:

This complex, yet drinkable beer is a blend of pale ale and stout.  The aroma is a combination of hop from the pale ale with roasted notes and just a hint of smoke from the stout.  The rounded body of the beer starts with sweetness from the caramel malt in the pale ale and finishes with aggressive roasted fullness of the stout.  The finish is crisp and bitter, but with no astringency.  This perfectly blended beer is the marriage of two excellent individual beers coming together to make one phenomenal brew.

Harpoon 100 Barrel Series Session 45: Director’s Cut pours to a dark brown color with a thick rocky head of tan foam and a soft cookie-malt nose. The palate has more of the soft cookie maltiness and hints of toasted nut, black barley and treacle. The beer has a hint of licorice and more roastiness than I expected from the stout paired with some herbal, grassy hoppiness and caramel from the pale ale. A dry, bitter finish with a hint of roast rounds the whole affair out quite nicely.

An interesting experiment, and I really enjoyed the way neither the pale ale nor the stout got lost in the mix. A very drinkable and very enjoyable brew, and I loved the way the roasty and hoppy essences worked so well together.

4 stars for adherence to style and affordable price.

And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.

*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.

(B)=Bottled

(D)=Draft

 

 



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