Tripping over my dog as I came back home at 8:05 pm with two bags of glassware and four bottles of Fundamental Observation wasn’t the stealthy entrance I had hoped for, especially with a belly full of smash burgers and various vanilla bourbon barrel-aged stout variants. The other dogs came out to investigate the situation, one growling and kicking her back legs like a bull at a bullfight. The other, sniffs my leg and wags, obviously knowing what kind of shenanigans I had just endured. If this dog were human, she would no doubt love Fundamental Observation.
This year with Fundamental, or FO as its called, Bottle Logic threw a back parking lot-type of festival, complete with power-hungry security guards and steamy cracked blacktop. 89 degrees isn’t the ideal pairing for 14% bourbon stouts, but like Kelis sang, their milkshake brings all the boys to yard. So here we all are, sweat spots on shirts, a couple pouring stations, and one the world’s best beers poured into branded plastic cups.
Like fine wine, FO changes slightly from year to year depending on the blend and brewer tweaks. 2019’s FO relies on the telltale brownie batter vibes, but amps up the bourbon more from years past, which is a good thing. Bourbon barrels themselves can give off vanilla-toffee notes which play well with the beer’s big Madagascar vanilla bean bump. My only complaint about FO is the viscosity, which is great on service, but mellows in the day’s heat into the beer version of melted soft serve. The last few sips felt like taking cough syrup, complete with that mellow codeine heat and gentle shudder. Needless to say, if I had a cough, or any alement for that matter, FO would be the cure. It’s an old wives tale, look it up.
Look for Fundamental Observation at Bottle Logic’s tasting room and bottles at select stores for weeks to come!
Bottle Logic Brewing is at 1072 N Armando St, Anaheim bottlelogic.com
Greg Nagel has been writing about beer since 2011, is an avid homebrewer of wine, cider, and beer, is a certified Cicerone Beer Server, level 1 WSET in Wine, a podcaster with the Four Brewers Show, and runs a yearly beer festival called Firkfest happening on June 29th in Anaheim!