Cambridge Benevolence

Brewed by Cambridge Brewing Company
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Cambridge, Massachusetts USA

Sampled @ GABF- Pours a dark brown, small white head. Aroma is cookie dough, hot chocolate cooked over an open campfire, sour cherries and just a hint of vinegar. Flavor starts sour, cherries and apple, goes into a chocolate and burn/roasted malt thing. Dry, but clean finish to it.

GABF 2005
Aroma: peat, molasses, bittersweet chocolate, mustiness, earthiness
Appearance: murky brown, little head, no lacing
Flavor: plums, raisins, chocolate covered cherries, brown sugar, mustiness, and red wine
Palate: smooth and creamy

GABF 2005: Murky brown hue with no head or lace to speak of. Not a pretty beer but what is inside made up for it. The aroma has a WOW factor of lots of swet and ripened fruits and malts (cherry, prune, vanilla, caramel, bread) with a splash of oak and whisky. The taste is equally sweet and sour with a grape and cherry twang balanced by a sweet sugary and caramel nature. The finish is oaky and tannic with a hint of spice, I dig it! The feel is sticky and warming, very full bodied. One of my favorites of the fest.

Perhaps the most rated beer of the fest as well with 9 yea and 2 ney so far.

GABF: poured brown with little head. Had a wet cardboard and sour chocolate aroma. Low carbonation. Sour chocolate cherry flavor with alcohol notes. Interesting beer but not my cup of "tea".

Deep reddish brown pour with quickly fading head. The nose is immediately heavily vinous, shaping a date and grape richness that is only matched by the equivalent earthiness. Bourbony influence shines among the vinous nature, adding a generous dose of complexity, smoky and oaky to the already massive brown Belgian. Nutty, chocolatey, caramelic etc. maltiness has to cope with a fair bit of roastiness that, while it rounds the alcohol out nicely, may not have been the most competent complement to the liquorous and strong acetic environment. Sticky full body, very sweet. Decadent stuff.

09.30.05 GABF Murky brown. Queer nose is like a barleywine crossed with an oude brune. Molasses, fresh caramel, honey, peanuts, prune juice, old cask. Fascinating sniffer. Smoky notes dance throughout. Tastes like sugar, wood, cherries, white sour balls, pineapple, bubblegum. Damn this stuff is wild and delicious. Palate is more like a sour than a strong ale as it’s unctuous but medium in heft. Really could be a dangerous quaffer.

Nose-raisin, buttered popcorn, molasses. Taste-vanilla, cream, fig, brown sugar, some oaky tannins, very light brett character, tart cherry. This is excellent.

GABF 2005. Hazy, dark chestnut body with a fast-fading, effervescent beige head. Aroma of bourbon, sweet dates, figs, organic dark honey, and maple syrup. Smells sweet and sublime. Flavor is very earthy, malty, fruity, oaky and wild with nice dark toasted cherry elements. Sweet but balanced by a long, organic fruit peel quality bitterness. Superb and exciting beer.