Beer O' Clock -- 'Cuz finals have wiped me out

We're getting to "annual fishing trip" time of the year. The Blackhawks are in the Western Conference finals. This week was a goodbye to some really great young people (I can't call them kids) I've worked shoulder-to-shoulder with covering the Iowa Hawkeyes the last four years.

Good luck and Godspeed to the Daily Iowan's Brendan Stiles and KRUI's Jordan Loperena. You guys are going places.

The Blackhawks . . . The Blackhawks . . . The Blackhawks . . .

I can't think of a better time to do a Beer O' Clock.

This is Three Floyds' Blackheart. The Blackheart part of things is basically the label, designed by Blackheart Tattoo in San Francisco.

The beer is an English IPA. So very English. All English ingredients. It's an 8.0 ABV.

It pours a deep, vibrant copper/orange with a large sampling of medium bodied head. Smell is well malted here with some bitter malts and sweet, floral hops. Taste is balanced -- grainy malts come through first and then finishes with a sweet and floral flavor.

Very smooth. Blackheart rates an A- on 145 reviews at Beeradvocate.com.

This is a man wearing a kilt from Three Floyds' Dark Lord Day. It was April 24. I went with friends Brian, Kelly and Eric (an "On Iowa" commentator). We didn't do much beer drinking, more standing in line than anything else. That part sucked.

I put the over/under at dudes in kilts at eight. I came in at four.

We might do it next year. Or we might have Dark Lord Day a week early and call it Scotch Egg Day. (Wonderful, on the Three Floyds Brew Pub menu. Trust me.)

This dude sums up DLD pretty well.

This is Three Floyds' Broo Doo and it's an absolutely delicious harvest ale, perhaps my favorite beer style.

They call it an American IPA, but it says harvest ale on the label. I'm going with that. I love Sierra Nevada's harvest ale and this one's right there with it.

This beer is brewed during the hop harvest with a portion of unkilned or “wet” hops fresh off the vine.

From Three F: "It's apricot in color, Broo Doo's nose has dominant orange, pine sap and floral notes, balanced by a glazed nut and toffee malt body. This celebration of the hop harvest has intense tropical fruit, citrus and spicy accents that showcase the complexity of the hops we all love."

Yes, yes and yes.

Rates an A- on 177 reviews at BA.

This is Binny's Beverage Depot in Chicago. This is beer heaven.

And scotch and whiskey and whatever, whatever, whatever.

Highly recommend on any trip to Chicago.

This is from Hawkeye fan @rod_leviathan, a Twitter pal who shares a love of the hop.

This was my first Lagunitas product. Wilco Tango Foxtrot (I believe WTF, for short) is an Imperial Brown ale with a 7.83 ABV. Lagunitas brought it out in March and the company calls it "dangerous and chocolatey."

More pine and resinous hops shine through at first. Then it turns to the malts, with lots of dark malts, roast and some coffee flavors come through, then more caramel, some toffee, a little sweet stickiness, and lots of brown sugar.

I'll seek it out again, though I believe it was brewed just once. It rates a B+ on 243 reviews at BA.

Rod gave me a few more beers. Reviews will be forthcoming. (We traded.)

This delicious Imperial Pilsner is from Boulevard, a part of their Smokestack Series. Actually, this is a collaboration with Orval's Jean-Marie Rock. I don't know what that means, but this is a pilsner with a Belgium twist to it.

BA bills it as an American Double/Imperial Pilsner. And I think it's actually called "Collaboration No. 1."

By "Belgium," I mean you can really taste the Orval influence. Light citrus and into maybe a little tart apple, a trait I always, rightly or wrongly, associate with Belgian goldens. The hops at the end, though, bring it back for me.

Incredibly easy to drink. The 8.0 ABV is hardly a spike. BA rates it an A- on 92 reviews.

Here's another one from @rod_leviathan, Founders' Kentucky Breakfast Stout.

For dark beer people (I take that back, dark beer people are now "stout" people, really -- Dark-beer people were around when I was in college), for stout people, this is the motherlode.

This stout is brewed with a hint of coffee, chocolate and vanilla and then aged in oak bourbon barrels for over a year. This isn't oak barrel-aged Breakfast Stout, a Founders' beer we talked about at Beer O' Clock a few weeks ago, it's totally different.

Aroma is bourbon -- wonderful, wonderful bourbon -- with a big, snarling stout underneath. Molasses, dark chocolate covered raisin, cocoa, oaky vanilla with something of a titch of alcohol on the nose.

The taste is pure Kentucky, which is amazing with Founders being based in Grand Rapids, Mich. It's sweet, burnt brown sugar, dark, bitter roast malt, raisinettes, and plenty of bourbon. Alcoholic burn is fairly well balanced by bold flavor.

The label is an old timey hoot. It cures sciatica and sprains, from The Amazing Kosmicki.

This baby rates an A+ after an impressive 1,168 reviews on BA. It's labeled an American Double/Imperial Stout with an ABV of 11.20 percent.

The Kraken! Coming soon to a fridge in my basement.