Carlsberg Elephant

Brewed by Carlsberg Brewery
Style: European Strong Lager
Copenhagen, Denmark

500ml can: poured golden yellow with a short lived white head. Alcohol and apple aroma. Too much alcohol in the flavor along with apple juice. Lightly tangy in the finish. Too much alcohol flavor for a beer that’s only 7.2%.

Crystal clear golden orange with a bubbly head that didn’t last. Not surprisingly the aroma is heavy on the malt and alcohol is prominent, but there’s a bit of toffee in there too. The flavour has a nice balance initially, but does become a bit cloying at the back of the mouth. Surprisingly thin, but otherwise the palate shows good carbonation and a nice malty aftertaste. Not a fantastic beer, this giant of the African jungle (via Denmark) certainly carries it’s weight quite admiraby, and IMHO is under-rated.

Bottle. Clear golden with short lasting, bubbly white head. The labe says "...high aroma intensity and malt character...". Considering the high abv I think it offers surprisingly little flavor- and aroma-wise. It achieves balance and drinkability, is inoffensive but also quite dull. Give me a cask bitter please.

Certainly its complex for a malt liquor but still not a good beer. The aroma is a little grassy and very malty. The appearance is golden and the head is smallish. The flavor is raisins, corn syrup and paper with astringent bitterness. The palate is decent. Lingering bitter aftertaste. Even though I don’t really like this, it’s certainly not the worst malt liquor I have had.

Bottle. Creamy white head. Mostly deminishing. Yellow color. Moderate malty aroma. Very bitter taste.

Hats off to whoever ran across the road from Øl Baren to pick this up for our rating pleasure (Kook was that you?) and also to Jacob for letting us know it was there... Husky, grainy, cereal malt aroma with alcohol very apparent. Clear golden body with low white head that recedes to ring. Somewhat vegetal malt flavour is syruppy, and corny with plenty of alcohol. Moderate finishing bitterness. Mild warming, astringent, light body and strong somewhat aggressive carbonation. Can sampled as part of the RBESG’05 week end festivities... and it just so happens that was rating #2700. A dubious milestone.

Canned. Pours light golden with a mostly receding white head. Aroma of corn, sweet malts, note of alcohol. Tastes of metal, some estery fruitiness, and strange adjuncts. A very odd finish, not at all appealing. Medium bodied and fizzy. Not very satisfying, but more palatable than most malt liquors.

Green bottle.. 12oz. Poured a bright golden with a light spattering of white head. Aroma was a cross between bready malt, corn, and skunk. Funny that I write this before looking at the previous rating :) Rather light mouthfeel... with a little less than ideal carbonation. Flavor was initially sweet with alcohol and corn on the tip of the tongue... got much sweeter toward the finish, and was slightly cloying. Balance wasn’t so hot, and it wasn’t so good at hiding the alcohol. Decent for the style.