Choose Responsibly NOT Illogically

As a lover of beer and wine, I obviously like to drink now and then...ok more than that, but it's always about drinking responsibly so I have a high degree of irritation for neo-prohibitionists. Those people that pass nonsensical laws that make it difficult for one to grab a drink. Laws that include now allowing people to grab a beer on election day (God forbid we have a drink after voting!), to not being allowed to grab a six pack on Sunday before the big game. None of these laws are doing anything REAL, i.e. stopping alcoholism, or stopping drunk driving. There are of course tons of neo-prohibitionist lobbyists in D.C. making sure that their puritanical laws are enacted and enforced, but beyond the corporate beer/wine/liquor lobbyists their aren't many consumer lobbyists charged with discussing drinking responsibly not illogically. Until now that is. I've come across a website dedicated to the organization Choosing Responsibly. The organization is run by an former College President (at Vermont's Middleburry College). The goal of Choosing Responsibly is:

Our mission is to promote general public awareness of the dangers of excessive and reckless alcohol consumption by young adults. Through a program of research, publication, education, and related activities Choose Responsibility seeks to engage young people, their parents, and public officials in serious deliberation on the role of alcohol in American culture

This is a BIG mission. One of their more interesting views is lowering the drinking age to 18. While the neo-prohibitionists might be gnashing their teeth, if you look at it logically it makes sense. John McCardell Jr. the aforementioned head of the organization has seen, through his years of working in higher education, an epidemic in binge drinking by underage drinkers. Because these young adults can not legally drink they do it behind closed doors and in copious amounts instead of in the open in a more controlled atmosphere. They also have some interesting facts that go against those that the neo-prohibitionists spout: less alcohol related deaths that they correlate to raising the drinking age, can be just as likely attributed to higher safety standards in vehicles and the increased stigma of drinking and driving regardless of age. The agurement goes on that its not about setting up laws and restrictions that young adults are going to break, but educating them on drinking responsibly and helping ending the epidmic of binge drinking. If we tell our childrent that its ok to drink and we lift that stigma, it becomes less likely that they will over drink. This is not agrigorical, but a fact that plays itself out in other countries where the stigma of drinking is lifted. Having just been to Germany I have seen it first hand, where kids as young as 16 our allowed to drink beer, and at 18 can drink liquor. The binge drinking is just not there as it is here.
Its a fascinating argument and one that sadly will probably not go anywhere due to cowardliness of our politicians. Can you imagine one standing up for common sense? Stating that an 18 year old has all the rights as an adult accept one? That an 18 year old is smart enough to drive a car, serve and possibly die for our country, is smart enough to choose the leaders of our country, but not smart enough to lift a pint of beer, or glass of wine?

Left Hand Warrior IPA

I have a soft spot in my heart for Left Hand Brewery, one they are from Longmont and I have a friend from there, two they were one of the first CO craft breweries I visited, and three, they make darn good beer. I have tasted many of their fine brews. This was my first time trying this a seasonal beer made with fresh wet hops.
The Beer: A brew made with fresh hop flowers right after the Hop Harvest of the fall. Came in one of Left Hand's BIG BEER's. Poured a nice smooth clear amber color with a thick tan head. As expected lots of full floural hops on the nose. The mouth is efferevescent full of hops, like chewing a hop flower, strong, no malt to help balance it out here. Beyond the strong biting hops their is an alcohol astringency here that almost over powers everything. This is an ok beer that with a little bit of balance could have been a great beer. Here's what the folks over at BA had to say.

Victory Prima Pils

During my time in Germany I began to understand the greatness that is Pilsner. Growing up and going to college, the only "pilsner" (and I use that term loosely) was Budweiser or Coors or Miller. So going to Germany I found true great pilsner, from the very over produced Bitburger (which for being mass produced is quite tasty) to the regional Jever, and of course the Czech, Pilsner Urquell and Budvar. Now that I am back, I am trying to find a beer that can quench my thirst for a good pilsner. To me the imports don't taste the same here as they do over there so I needed to find an American Pilsner, and that meant a craft brewery. For the most part Craft Brewery's have opted to stay away for Pilsners instead going for Ambers, or Pale Ales as their flagship beers, so I was happy to find out about Victory Prima Pils. I am a big fan of Victory and have tasted a few of their beers.
The Beer: Poured in a traditional Pilsner glass, poured a nice slightly hazy straw yellow, plenty of tiny champagne like bubbles and capped with a quarter inch foamy white head. The nose is spicy, hops, citrus and a bit of stone. The mouth is much of the same, full bodied to the max, hoppy and biting, vibrant I would call it. Reminds me of a North German Pilsner like Jever, very spicy and complex. So far away from the American Pilsners that people think of. This is what it should be. Here is what the folks at BA had to say.

Quick Note

I'll borrow the article from Brookston Beer Bulletin who reports this great news for craft beer lovers. In the year 2006 Craft Beer sales incrased by 11.7% and over the last three years almost 30%. As Macrobreweries lament losing profits and lower sales, it is reports like this that show people may be drinking a little less beer over all, but that people are going towards drinking BETTER beer. And thats always a good thing.

Beer: Business and Financial news

A lazy Sunday morning, allows me to surf around the internet looking for news about Beer. Beer business is a huge market, and involves some of the largest companies in the world so here is just a sampling of things that I found:

Molson Coors profits up: Of course the profits aren't up becuase they have been making better beer, or even selling more beer. Profits are up because they have decreased their costs. That would be business code for they laid off a bunch of employees. I understand working towards effieciency as that should always be the goal, but this is a bit of a wolf in sheeps clothing report to me.

New Global Beer Merger? Thats the report out of Brazil where rumors are starting hot and heavy that A-B and Belgium Brewery Giant In Bev are going to merge. These two companies are the respective leaders in revenue and volume would create by far the largest brewing company in the world. What would this mean for you the consumer? Less choice. The more merging that is done the more the big beers (even if thats Stella Artois and Hoegarden) will fill the Beer cases at your local store, and the less room there will be for your local Craft Brewery.

Miller to Launch new Beer: A beer for the Lime and Corona crowd. Miller will be introducing a new beer in certain markets, that is modeled after the Mexican Chelada, combining beer with lime and salt. A low calrorie beer that will compete against Bud Light, and Coors light. Good luck with all that as I just don't see this as a huge market for such things.

Put your Imperial stout DOWN! At least thats what will be happening in Singapore come next year. Starting January 1st of next year beers will be taxed based on their alcohol content. Beer below 5.5% will actually decrease while beer above 8.0% will increase.

Double dose of Dogfish head

My first beer posts back in the states will be about as far away from German style beers as one can possible get. I sat down this week to enjoy two from the Great Dogfish Head Brewery out of Deleware. I have talked about their beer before of course as this is one of my favorite breweres, and I love the experimentation that goes on there. While not all are successes, I appreciate the effort to do something new.
Chateau Jiahu: One of the most unique beers I've ever had, well according to the label its actually a"malt beverage" not a beer, but whatever. Made with Hawthorn fruit, honey, grape concentrate, Chrysanthemum flowers, this is like Midas Touch, a reproduction of an ancient beer. Go to the website to find out a little more about the history. The beer was packaged in a big bottle, the label an amazing piece of artwork. The beer weighs in at a nice 8%, pours a nice cloudy yellow orange, with plenty of carbonation but minimal head. The nose is full of honey, citrus, orange blossom, and floural notes. The mouth is more of the same, mild, with floural notes, citrusy notes, yeasty, loads of frozen white grape juice flavor, and very bubbly, like a champagne. Very interesting, not sure I would get this again and again, but it has its place thats for sure.
Raison D'Extra: One of my favorite beers is the Raison d'etre so when I saw this at my local Spec's, a Souped up version so to speak I had to grab a couple of bottles. WARNING: as this beer is an alcohol BOMB! The beer weighs in at 18%! Pours a dark rich cloudy copper brown, again with minimal head, and nice carbonation. As expected the nose is full of brown raisins, brown sugar and caramel, suprsingy not a lot of alcohol. The mouth has lots of raisins, maple syrup, not a lot of hops and this is where the alcohol starts to show up hiding some of the nuances you know want to come out. Like the 120 minute IPA, I think this beer will mellow out stretching and concentrating the brown sugar and raisin flavors with a little bit of age.

Its good to be home

Yes, I am back in Houston, Texas from my three month stay in Cologne Germany. I loved my time in Germany and I made a lot of great and wonderful friends, but I am also glad to be back home. Now that I am back I'd like to take a post to write about my thoughts on my stay. Be patient as this will be a bit of a stream of consciousness effort.
My overall assessment is that I continue to be amazed by the variety of beers that German Brewers put forth, from the unique Rauchbier, to Black Lager, and finally the home town Kolsch. All very different beers, but all uniquely German. One of the things that I love about German and to an extent all most of Europe is the regional brews. Cologne of course has Kolsch, Dussledorf has altbier, Bavaria has their bock's, and weizen's, Easter Germany has their bohemian style pilsners. I love that about Germany as each region puts their soul into their regional beer, as its the closest I have seen of beer making matching the terrior that oenophiles talk up so much about in wine. Whereas here in the States no one region has a beer to call their own. The closes is what some have called California Pale Ale's after the style of Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale, but that really isn't' the same as what occurs in Germany.
One last comment on German beers in regards to Hefeweizens. I have not always been a fan of this style in the states, but the ones that I was able to drink in Germany were absolutely amazing, full of banana and cloves. I couldn't figure out why the German versions in the states weren't as good until one day I was talking to one of my German friends. The hefeweizens that are imported into the states are all pasteurized. The thermal treatment of these beers kills some of the flavor profile thereby creating (in my mind) a blander beer. All this means is that I will have to start looking for American versions that aren't baked to dullness.
During my stay I also had the opportunity to become more familiar with Belgium Beers. In this day and age of globalization its difficult to find beers that you can't get over here in the states, but I did my best and think I succeeded.
All in all this was an amazing opportunity for me, both professionally and personally and it opened my eyes to a whole new world of beer experiences.

Review: Microbrews: Ten year Retrosprective

Note: Based on a comment made by Wortwurst the author of the site, I realized that I had spoken too soon. His review is only HALF Complete as there will be 200 total beers.

I have spoken about the wonderful website Microbrews: A 10 year retrospective a couple of times (here, and here), and the project has finally been completed. To review, the gist of this site is that 10 years ago the book Microbrews: A Guide to America's Best new Beers and Breweries, was published, the creator of the site, went about to see how many of those 100 beers mentioned were still around. He finished the project earlier this week and the results are in. Out of the 100 beers published, they were created by a total of 79 breweries. Of those 100 beers only 47 are still active, of the 79 breweries only 47 are still active. I guess its not to surprising that a little over half of the beers and breweries have failed to make it 10 years. As the author states, thats about typical for self run businesses. Its still sad that some good beer has gone to waste. Please go check out the site, and peruse at your leisure.

Floris Chocolate Beer

Cologne has a lot of Museum's. One of my favorite's is the Schokolade Museum, and the incredible gift shop they have. I have a weak spot for very dark chocolate and they have that in abundance. This past week I was visiting the museum with a friend of mine and came across a stash of Chocolate beer. Now this isn't a typical Chocolate Stout, but an actual straight up Belgian Chocolate Beer.
The Beer: The beer weighs in at 4.2% and is made with real chocolate. It pours a nice light cloudy copper color, with good carbonation, and no head. There is a thin film skimming over the surface of the beer. The nose is full of chocolate, almost like a yoohoo, and a tad bit of bitterness. The flavors are chocolate, and a tangy tartness that tasted like very rich almond extract, very overpowering. Over all it tasted like carbonated milk chocolate with a bottle of almond extract poured in. Not a good beer at all. I think this is something that could have been very good, even excellent, but this missed the mark by quite a bit.

BIG BEER NEWS

At least I like to think so. I have tried (sometimes failing miserably) to participate in the virtual monthly wine tasting Wine Blogging Wednesday. Now comes the news from Stan over at Appelation Beer that he is going to start (hopefully) a monthly Beer tasting.
Here are the details: "not your father's Irish Stout". Do a tasting of any stout as long as its not Guiness, Murphy's or Beamish. Send Stan the link and/ or your tasting notes by March 2.
Easy huh!
I think this is a great idea for many reasons. It will open the door to many different beers from all over the world, many I probably have never had the opportunity to taste. Secondly I think it will bring the Beer Blogging world a bit closer, which I think is a good thing.
Check back on the 2nd of March for the results.

Schloesser Altbier

As I mentioned this past weekend, I was able to bring back an Altbier from my weekend trip to Dusseldorf. It was tonight that I decided to pop it open and give it a try. The beer weighed in at a nice 4.8%. It poured a rich copper brown, light carbonation, capped with a thick pillowy frothy white head. The nose was hoppy bitterness and copper notes. The mouth had hints of metallic flavor, brown surgar, caramel, and surprisingly low on the hop aroma. You could feel the hops, but they definitely weren't overpowering, in fact it was incredibly balanced with rich malty sweetness. Not a great beer, but a very good one.

My Trip to Dusseldorf

Three months ago, when I first said that I was coming to Cologne for work, Jay over at Hedonist Beer Jive implored me to head to Dusseldorf to taste their Altbier. This weekend I was able to do just that. Before I get in to my journey let me take a few minutes to explain Altbier.
Altbier, also called Dusseldorfer Alt since that is the primary city this particular beer is brewed in means Old, but not in the meaning of a British Stale ale, but meaning brewed in the traditional methods. While many in Germany took their dark beers and made them paler (as Cologne did to Kolsch) due to the popularity of Pilsners, Dusseldorf and the Alt brewer's stuck to their guns. Altbiers are top fermenting ales, that are then lagered for long periods of time. They have intense hop bitterness, but the hop flavor and aroma are mild. Usually full bodied, bitter, (instead of malty sweet), and range from reddish amber to a dark brown.
So back to my journey......a friend of mine took up to Dusseldorf, only an hour or so away for dinner and some Alt drinking. Since I was out, I didn't take tasting notes, but I will give my best impressions of the experience. We tasted three different Alt's: Uerige, Frankenheim, and the aformentioned Diebels. All were Von Fass or from the tap. The Uerige was tasted at the brewery and was by far my favorite. All had that nice hoppy bitterness, but surprising that the aroma and flavor was not overly hoppy, but instead elegantly well balanced between malty and hoppy, with hops winning by just a bit, creating a full bodied, refreshing beer. All were dark reddish amber, with a Start white head, and plenty of carbonation. These were beers that I would love to get to know better, so I am a little sad that I waited until the very end of my trip to try them. The good news for me was that I was able to bring a bottle of Alt back with me and plan to open it up and post my notes on it later this week.

Last of the Belgian Triplets

Over the course of the last few weeks I have cleared out my Belgian beer stash. It was a bitter sweet moment when I drank my last as I knew it was the end of a pretty good experience trying a lot of beers that I have never had, and probably won't have again, at least not until I am able to come back to Belgium. This triplet consists of an Abbey style ale, a brune, and a another Trappist Ale.
Grimburgen Tripple Abbey Beer: I have tasted aGrimburgen beer before in Belgium. This beer weighed in at a hefty 9.0% abv. It poured a honey golden yellow with a two inch head capped by a fluffy stark white head. The nose had some petrol and hop flavors with hints of citrus and honey. The mouth was tart and tangy, with notes of white raisins, brown sugar and a lot less of alcohol than I expected. The beer finishes beery smooth. Low carbonation and low effervescence, so the beer coats the mouth nicely. An above average beer.
Ciney Brune: I liked the Ciney Blonde I tried before and rather enjoyed it. The beer weighed in at 7%, and poured a nice dark chocolate, that was almost opaque, with a thin bubbling taupe head. The nose was choclatey, caramel, and raisins. Low carbonation. The mouth was smooth chocolatey, caramel and notes of raisins at the finish. Thick rich, comforting. Smooth as silk, a very nice beer.
Rochefort 8 Trappist Beer: One of the few Trappist breweries that still exist. I tried a trappist ale previously and it was great so I popped the top off this one, my last beer from my trip to Brussels eagerly. The beer weighed in at 9.2% the highest alcohol of the three. Poured a rich chocolate brown, with a thick pillowy taupe head. Nice carbonation. Loads of raisins, caramel, cocoa, roasted almonds, and molasses. Thick mouthfeel notes of chocolate, and ending in raisins, and figs. Smooth and thick, would make an awesome desert beer. The only thing that didn't make it a top notch beer was the bit of alcohol burn that showed up as the beer warmed up. Still an amazing beer, and not only my favorite of this trio, but also one of the top beers that I had from Belgium.

New Fruit Beers

No, I am in no way shape or form talking about great traditional Belgian Lambics here. Nothing that elegant, instead I am talking about the decision of Michelob's announcement of their new Ultra Fruit beers. Under their line of relatively popular low Carb beers Ultra Light they have created a trio of different fruit beers: Cactus Lime, Tuscan Orange Grapefruit, and Pommegranite Raspberry, billed as Pilsners with natural fruit flavors. I am assuming they are using that term losely as its 'natural flavor' created through a chemical process instead of using actual fruit. This is as indicative as anything that the big brewers are losing ground and will do anything to get some of it back. Again instead of spending money on creating better beer, they go an do this. If you want a fruit beer, go out and get a Lambic, don't waste your hard earned money on this.

2003 S.A. Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spatlese

I love Riesling. As with many oenophiles, I find it to be the most food friendly wine there is outside of Champagne or other sparkling wines. Being in Germany has given me the opportunity to try some really great ones. As I mentioned a while back I had the opportunity to try some Alsatian versions. Tonight I tried a traditional German version.
The Wine: The wine weighed in at a surprisingly high 12.5%. It poured the color of fresh straw and smelled of apricots, honey, stone specifically granite, lime, peach and a tad bit of lychee. The mouth was more of the same with a vibrant but not bracing acidity, a bit of a tang, some tartness, and then a nice long smooth finish. A very nice wine and a good example of the sweeter version that is Spatlese. The sweetness was not overpowering, but just present underneath the acidity. I'd grade it a B+.

Quick Hits: Beer Business

A couple of notes from the world of Business, Beer Business that is. Beer has a HUGE market share in American and Global economic impact with such Business behemoths as InBev, A-B, SABMiller, so its only fair that from time to time I'll try and gather some relevant beer business news.

SABMiller profits up: SABMiller profits are up for the third quarter by an astounding 10%. Some of this is due to purchases of new breweries like the South American Bavaria brand. As the big brewers realize that their beer is not selling as well as they would like, instead of trying to create better beer, they have started a trend of buying up other import breweries or as with A-B setting up exclusive distribution deals as they have with Belgian InBev and Budvar.

Scottish and Newcastle losing their courage: British Brewing giant Scottish and Newcastle have sold their production, selling, and marketing rights of Courage Brewing to Wells and Young Brewing company. Courage produces Courage Best and Directors, not anything that I am familiar with, but I thought it was surprising since its an entity they have had for a while. They will continue to keep 17% interest, but as the article states are shifting focus onto their international brands such as Kronenburg out of Strasbourg, France.

Ukraine losing its Beer Interests: Local Ukraine beer interest are more likely to lose out to Global Beer companies than ever before after Ukraine's fourth largest brewing group Samat announced they were looking into selling. One of the groups that seem interested is of course the above mentioned SABMiller. This is a scary time for national brewing groups as more and more are being bought out by HUGE global companies. Already SUN Interbrew (owned and operated by InBev) owns 37% of Ukraine's beer pie, if SABMiller comes in and obtains the 12% pie that Samat currently owns then you have almost 50% of Ukraine's beer business owned by outside interests, which is never an ideal situation.

New Beer business sight: As I was surfing around looking for information I came across this new website all about the Beer industry with some Market Analysis. It is run by Miller Brewing Company so you can expect some obvious slant, but I'll be checking it out from time to time.

More Belgian Beers

I finished my latest trio of beers that I brought back from Brussels. It was a little sad as I only have three more left, but I guess that's appropriate as I only have a couple of more weeks here in Germany before I come back to the good ole U.S. of A. Of the three beers, one was a trappist, the other was a pretty common beer from Belgium, the other a nice Tripel.
Palm: Palm is a pretty big brewery from Belgium. Its a top fermented beer, and came packed in a bright green can. The beer weighed in at 5.2% the weakest of the three beers. IT poured a nice clear amber with a three quarters of an inch head, and little carbonation. The nose was spicey, fruity oranges, a bit of petrol and hoppy bitterness. The mouth was surprisingly mild a bit metallic with just a bit of bitterness and malty sweetness. It was just there, nothing spectacular, and OK beer, but not one that I would go out of my way to try again.
Achel Blond Beer: Achel is one of the smaller of the Trappist Breweries. Along with Chimay, Rochefort, Westmalle, Orval, and Westvleteren. It is the newest member of the Trappist community. The beer came in a bottle and weighed in at 8.0%. It poured a cloudy hazy golden yellow with a THICK Duvel like head. Hops spices, oranges, petrol, white raisins were all in abundance in the nose. The mouth was fruity, full of hoppy bite and white grape sweetness, finishing off with just a bit of alcohol burn. A very nice blond indeed.
Karmeliet Tripel: Again this was a beer at 8%, and the final fermentation took place in the bottle. The beer's ingredients included the typical wheat, hops, and yest, but also oats. The beer poured a nice bright cloudy amber with a two inch frothy pillowy head. Sweet honey, hops, orange, brown sugar, cinnamon on the nose. The mouthfeel was robust, full of brown sugar, hoppy bitterness and twang. Very strong beer but smooth at the end. Low carbonation, but some natural effervescence due to the final fermentation. I picked this as my favorite beer from this group. It was excellent.

Diebels Altbier

Altbier or 'old beer' is indigenous to Germany and specifically to the city of Dusseldorf. It gets its name, not because its an old stale beer but because of the reverent way its brewers work on keeping with the traditional methods of Rhineland brewing. Altbiers are top fermented and have copious amounts of hops.
Diebels is probably Germany's best known brewer of Altbier and is one of the few that can be found on the import market (although not in the states).
The beer: Unfortunately not from a draft but the bottle, the beer weighs in at 4.9 %. The beer pours a nice bright amber color with a bubbling frothy tan head. On the nose hops show up but nicely balanced with the sweet smell of caramel malts. The mouth is full of hops biting the tongue with toasted caramel at the finish. The beer starts with a nice harsh bite then slowly mellows leaving a long soothing caramelly aftertaste. Very nice enjoyable beer.

Beer Quick Hits

Its a lazy Monday, so instead of doing some tasting or a long post on Beer or Wine, I thought I'd give my readers a couple of newsie bits. Enjoy as you will.

Saint Arnold's News: Their sales grew by a whopping 25% in the year 2006! How awesome is that! And if your around and a home brewer (or interested in it) on the 18th of Feb, the great Charlie Papazian will be at the brewery. Check out the AHA website for more details: http://beertown.org/homebrewing/membership.html

If we didn't like beer enough, now news comes out that a beer from Bulgaria will increase a woman's breast size. Nope I can't make this stuff up.

And lastly amongst the news that A-B and Budvar are burying the hatchet (kinda) and are coming together in a distribution deal that gives Budvar access to A-B distributors, comes the news that A-B can not sell their flagship brand as Budweiser in Portugal.

Another Trio of Belgian Beers

Since I have a good sized stash of Belgian Beers due to my trip to Brussels during the holidays I thought that I would just continue to put a few in one post instead of doing a single post on each beer. My first trio was early last week and this will be my second go around. Two Blonds and a Gueuze.
Belle Vue Gueuze: This one was my first gueuze that I ever tried so it was something I have been looking forward to since I got back. Now in an effort of full disclosure I am not the biggest fan of Lambic's so I had a bit of trepidation when opening up this beer. The beer weighed in at a nice 5.5 %. It poured a cloudy light brown with hints of orange streaking through the body. Capped by a cream colored stable foamy head. The nose was tart, tangy, citrusy, small notes of floral hos. The mouth had an amazing effervescence, fruity, tart. It reminded me of the Smartie candies I ate as a kid, but the super tart ones, maybe with a little granny smith sour apple taffy thrown in for good measure. It was quite good actually. Not something I could have a lot with, but a good beer none the less.
Cuvee Des Troll: This beer is produced by Dubuisson, the same brewer that puts out the Bush beers (I had the Bush Noel while in Brussels that was quite good). Their website calls this beer a 'Cloudy Blonde', I'll buy that. The beer weighs in at 7%. Pours a golden yellow (but light on the cloudiness) capped by a thin very dense looking white head. The nose was full of lemon zest, yeast, fresh baked bread. The mouth was lemony, with some bananas, a big of vanilla and ended with a taste of big doughy bread. Very nice, but I would put this more of a witbier than a traditional Blonde. A thoroughly enjoyable beer.
Gordon's Finest Gold - Strong Blonde Beer: They aren't kidding! I had tried the Gordon's Xmas beer in my last posting and had enjoyed it so I opened this super large Can (yes CAN!) with some excitement. The beer weighed in at a hefty 10%. Poured a bright orange with a thick pale cream head. Sweet malts and a lot of honey in the nose. Unfortunately the mouth was all petrol, and alcohol. Really almost overpowering initially. As I drank a bit, and my tongue I think somewhat became used to the alcohol, and the beer warmed, notes of honey and caramel began to show up. I think this is a beer that had some promise but it was just too much alcohol and not enough hops or malt to hide it. Disjointing.