Heavyweight Ivy League Pils

Formerly brewed at Heavyweight Brewing Company
Style: European Strong Lager
Ocean Township, New Jersey USA

2006 bottle from Dorwart, shared with SuIIy on 11/11/06
Immense amounts of white head are very stubborn and slow to recede. Leaving the sediment behind produces a honey-marigold body with slight copper tints, medium-high clarity and quite lucid. Carbonation is light, but evident. Head sticks to the glass everywhere, providing vast sheets of lace. Yet another fantastic appearance from HW
Strong cattiness in the nose, mixed with dry, spicy rye and heavily sweet honey, bordering on syrupy caramel. I think the sweetness vastly outdoes the more dry aspects and the hops are subsumed as well. Light citrus notes of lemon and orange rind attempt to fight through to the surface, while some fiery alcohol warmth is evident on the finish as well. Strong aroma, though rather crass. I guess that’s sort of expected in a strong golden lager, but I dont see why it couldnt be more attenuated and more liberally dry-hopped. Spiciness comes with warming, but combines with the light alcohol vapors and almost seems phenolic.
Massively sweet flavor is difficult to swallow. Wow, this is ridiculously underattenuated. Burning, slick finish, with spicy and lightly citric hops that make little impression. Carbonation is tight, but still rather low, allowing the sweetness to grow very syrupy (think canned peach syrup) and cloy on the finish. Don’t see the appeal of this one; no finesse and not all that much complexity. Rye and some light biscuit notes are futile. Yeast is rather clean, though some crispness is imparted on the finish... but then swallowed again by the malt sugar. Damn spot on for style, I guess. It’s thick, it’s syrupy, it’s got apparent alcohol. Don’t think that’s what they were getting at though. Maybe if you approach it as a barleywine....Anyways, SuIIy and I couldnt finish the bottle.

Bottle from Hopdog. Glad I had this chance to try this one.Tastes amazingly still fresh even nearly a year after brewing, although the malts do play a prominant role. Vegetably aroma is not too exciting, but the pour is a beautiful, very cloudy dark yellow with a huge and perfectly lacing head. Thick and luxirious in the mouth, very drinkable but probably the most full-bodied lager I’ve had. Lots of spicy hops in the taste, dry, with a potent but refined malt. Spicy rye is evident when you look for it, though to be honest, before reading the description and seeing this had rye, I had no idea. Tasty stuff.

Bottle poured into a Corsendonk tulip glass. Looks great, big pillowy head, thick murky, dark golden body. Aroma is very present - sweet and floral aroma. Dont know how Tom did it but its very nice. Taste is is more herbal with slight sweetness. Some hop presence at the end. What I like is it really doesnt taste like a lager. Maybe its the rye malt but its great. The mouthfeel is very nice on this as well. A nice heavy body that feels llike cushions on the cheeks. Not strong carbonation but detectable.

bottle, heavyweight final open house. mostly clear yellow color with an off-white head. sweet candy malt aroma. good carbonation. dry malt & hop flavor. dry finish.

Bottle from Jeff (doclock) Thanks! This one is interesting. Pops off very nicely, and pours out a reddish brown color with a giant fucking head. The beer smells like soap, hops, and malts. Taste is sweet and malty, with a nice hop kick to it as it finishes. It goes down very easy, and is worth trying, though I am not sure how many of these beers are actually out there. Still, a very nice european strong.

Pours with a dense white head. Grassy herbal notes in the first whiff of this cloudy golden brew. Marked spiciness in the hops to balance the grainy/bready malts.

The cap comes off and the bottle emits a prophetic hiss. As one of two Heavyweight beers remaining in my cellar, it’s a shame to think that the brewery has finally mastered the bottling woes, with this pils boasting the brewery’s best seal ever. Bygones.

Translucent (and slightly clouded later on) with a bold, polished gold hue and bubbles rising in the body to fuel a dense, white laundry suds looking head. The lacing on this one resembles Christmas window etching all too well. Aroma accomplishes what it sets out to do: fabric softener, freesia scented dryer sheets, musty cornmeal, husky oregano, lemon buttered sourdough corners and subtle orange honey glaze. Flavor projects smooth Bavarian articulations. Keen Hallertau happenings support a grainy, husky and harvest focused flavor. Rosemary sourdough with lemon herbal butter hidden in the alcoves. Staunchy pils profile is dead-on, and then turned up a notch, with golden corn grain mills and corresponding husks doing the dirty work. Clean, forceful and blanketing the palate with the musty pils character serving as the bannerman. Fantastically balanced with attuned noble hop support, clean bready malts and amped-up carbonation. Herbaceous traits akin to green onion stems parlee in the finish with stark sourdough and a Stetson cologne muskiness. Big thanks for the big bottle, tpkenned!

Pours a lightly effervescent golden with a fizzy white head. Slightly funky, earthy noble hoppy aroma has some gritty sugary caramel character. Starts lightly sugary sweet with some dry, earthy bittering hoppy balance and a drier bittersweet, lingering finish.