389. Oskar Blues Ten Fidy

More exciting can action from Oskar Blues. Can do! As it says on the can, “Cross-eyed. Cyclopean. Cancupiscent.” The can also tell us that Ten Fidy is “Half-Baked. Fully Roasted Ale,” as well as “This dog’ll hunt.” For cans? Quite a bit of information for your normal can, especially if you want to throw in the “Pack it in, pack it out” recycling message on the back. Add some label art and the requisite government warning, and you’ve got a busy-ass can. Ten Fidy marks our third beer from Oskar blues, including Mama’s Little Yella Pils and Dale’s Pale Ale, and also our third beer from them in a can. Can you say I do?

Ten Fidy pours a rich, dark chocolate brown with a burnt tan head that lingers briefly and then quickly reduces to a ring around the edge of the glass. While there appears to be some light orange and red highlights, Ten Fidy is dark and thick enough that not much light is getting through. Aromas in the nose include creamy malt sweetness and chocolate mixed with subtler amounts of roasted and burnt notes. The body is thick and chewy with a touch of creaminess—it has good substance on the palate and a viscous, slick mouthfeel that balances well with the chewiness, but is also very smooth. The carbonation is medium with a bit of a bite heading into the final third; combined with the bitterness, there is a bit of a drying effect on the palate at the finish. The lingering bitterness also merges with the light alcohol warmth as the close of the beer; combined with the rich chocolate and roastiness of the final third, the beer ends surprisingly clean on the palate in relation to the size of the beer. Ten Fidy is dominated by chocolate and sweet maltiness with an underlying caramel in the front; as the beer shifts to the middle, bitterness comes to the forefront, along with coffee and roasted flavors—it dries out a bit on the palate before the chocolate returns for the finish, combining with the existing bitterness and the emerging roasted darker malt flavors. There is a slight alkaline chalkiness at the back of the throat as the flavors recede, although the bitterness masks it slightly. Ten Fidy is an excellent slow-sippin’ beer. All in all, can-tastic.

From the Oskar Blues website: “This titanic, immensely viscous stout is loaded with inimitable flavors of chocolate-covered caramel and coffee and hide a hefty 98 IBUs underneath the smooth blanket of malt. Ten FIDY (10.5% ABV) is made with enormous amounts of two-row malt, chocolate malt, roasted barley, flaked oats and hops. Ten FIDY is the ultimate celebration of dark malts and boundary-stretching beer.”

ABV: 9.5% (listed as 9.5% on the can, not the 10.5% on the website—don’t ask)
Canned on: 9/25/2009

Oh, and just so you know, cancupiscent is a play on concupisent, which means lustful, sensual, or eagerly desirous. It is from the Latin concupiscere, which is to covet ardently or to concieve ardent desire for. Covet, hmmm? Isn’t that one of those seven deadly sins? I guess they want you to want their beer, especially if it is in the can.

(7/24/2010)