Bethlehem Brew Works Rude Elfs Reserve

Brewed by Bethlehem Brew Works
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania USA

12oz. Pours a clear copper with a small head. Aroma of wheat, cloves, cinnamon. More spice comes out when tasting; aroma plus nutmeg and allspice. Can also taste some sweet fruits. A little too much spice for my taste, but it almost works. Medium body.

definitely deserves the classification of spice/vegetable beer. overwhelming spice and potpourri aroma and flavor. tons of cinnamon. In fact, i think i’ve had spiced beers that were tamer than this. don’t see any belgian character in this at all. Anyways, light brown color and no head. taste and flavor is like i explained. For a style that i loathe this is actually pretty good. can’t believe it’s 9.5% abv either. And you know what, if you’re gonna drink a spiced beer that generally suck, you might as well get wasted while doing it.

I had this first at the 2005 Brewtopia, along with a few other BBW beers, including a Peach Lambic. I was highly impressed by the whole lineup. However, I could never get any of their stuff of course and when I talked to some Jersey people about it they werent impressed. But I made it a point when I went to Shoreline to find this beer. So I scored this 22 oz bottle. Fridged for a few days and poured into a small curved goblet. Pours amber with orange and reddish tints. Cant see through it but some clarity, visible floaties, I bet from all the spices. Very small head. Aroma is very present and is really what one sould expect. Lots of spices of a winter beer plus a strong presence of belgian sweetness. I mean it seems to be a great fusion of two distinct styles. Taste is more dominated by the spices and I bet some time will really bring this beer together. Medium bodied with low bitterness and no hint of alcohol. Also a nice thing is the coriander seems to come out nicely outside of the pumpkin beer spices.

12 oz bottle. Amber color with an off white head. Aroma is spicy with cinnamon, cloves and pepper. Taste is mustard seed, cardimom, apple, nutmeg, coriander and grape. If the fruits were a bit more subtle or dried, that would make this a lot more appealing. Not a bad beer by any means but this one that is after a being almost a year old, still a bit over the top. Nice, fresh flavors though.

12 oz bottle. Pours a reddish copper body, clear, under a very small fizzy white head that faded to a thin film. Aroma is very sweet with tons of cloying sticky spiciness. Alot of cinnamon, alcohol, fruity esters, and a touch of caramel. Flavor is dominated by alcohol and cinnamon red hots candy. A little malty sweetness below. The finish is rather harsh and biting. Mouthfeel is a little sticky and cloying with a good dose of fizzy prickly carbonation. Overall, this was over spiced and overly sweet, such as is the case with too many Christmas beers. 6/3/5/3/12, 2.9 Total Score

Re-rate, Dec 2008, on tap at Allentown location. The nose is very different from my first try, this was big and sweetly malty with some very subtle spices, candi sugar, vanilla, orange peel, maybel a little bit of cinnamon. The flavor was of heavy sweet malt with lots of candi sugar up front. The spices emerge on the finish with a bit of an alcohol burn. Seems a bit under-attenuated for my tastes. This was still somewhat of an improvement over my initial rating from the bottle. Much more complex and subtly spiced. Numbers are for my recent experience.

Tawny, auburn hue, under a thick slab of cocoa foam. Quite nice looking. Aroma: spice aplenty. Nutmeg and cinnamon, coriander and clove, probably more...heck, I bet they’re listed on the label. Soft and sensuous, tickling the nose with intriquing aromatics. Double nice. Taste: Bold, hoppy feel blasts into the mouth, spreads fresh, fierce flavor before fading back slowly. Spices remain in the fore of the flavor, sip after sip, hovering above a very full-bodied and complex ale. 9.5%? It’s starting to creep up there... yup, it’s making an impression. Not halfway into the bomber. I know I’ve got a wicked ride yet to go... Very nice spiced ale, this. Yummy yummers. wish I’d shared it with someone, though...such a chore to tackle on one’s own...delicious, but damned daunting.

Ah, too much spice going on in this "Belgian," too much cinnamon and nutmeg anyway. These spice beers (ginger, cinnamon) are starting to annoy me, big time, especially in beers like this that pretend to be "Belgian." Poured a clear amber beer with a small head and weak weak lacing. Aroma was of cinnamon, nutmeg, cherry, and some sort of juniper / medicinal or something of light floral aspects. Turns out they have some sort of sweet gale in here, which is something medicinal / shrubbery related - maybe that was it. Flavor was all spiced up everywhere, weak for the style, killed anything Belgian about this. Finished with some soapiness. The mouthfeel was thin for a Belgian. I’m gonna rate this before I finish, cuz as it warms this spice junk is killing me.

Bought this 22oz bottle from Buy Rite liquors in Cherry Hill, NJ. Pours a hazy amber color with a thin white head. Spicy pumpkin aroma with a hint of malt. Spicy taste with a hint of pumpkin! The exact opposite of the aroma. Dry finish. Warm mouthfeel. Hidden alcohol. Not a bad Ale.