HeBrew Genesis 10:10

Shmaltz Brewing Company
Formerly brewed at Olde Saratoga Brewing (Mendocino Brewing Co.)
Style: American Strong Ale
San Francisco, California USA

650ml brown bottle. Pours a dark red brown colour with a super creamy tan head. Lots of sticking lace on the glass. Aroma has pomegranate and some rich caramel malt behind it. Malty, medium sweetness with caramel/toffee up front, raisiny fruits, finishes with light citrusy hop bitterness and a slight alcohol bite. Just a hint of pomegranate flavour starts to show when it warm up. Viscous, heavy full body. Tight fine carbonation. Overall it’s sweet and rich, maybe too much. A touch more hopping would have put this into the 4’s for me.

22 oz. bottle from BevMo LaJolla. Pours a hazy deep orange amber color with a smallish white head that leaves thick curtains of lace. Rich toasty malts with ripe summer fruits, pomegranate (which apparently has a berry character) clover, subtle floral hops and pungent herbs. Flavor is sweet, tart and bitter all rolled together, pomegranate, toasty malts with hints of caramel, bitter flowers, biting herbs and alcohol noticible as well. Medium body and gently, prickly carbonation. Interesting ale overall.

Pours a hazy orange with a beautiful, creamy/frothy, off-white head that laces nicely. The aroma is a solid, sweet malt backing, much like an IIPA without the the powerful hop presence. Pomegranate along with fruity and resinous hops complete the nose. Medium-bodied, creamy and slick with soft carbonation, the palate finishes moderately bitter. Super-sweet, almost syrupy malt fronts the flavor profile, with a solid pomegranate note followed by more caramel malt. Resinous hops come in at the finish to reverse gears to the bitter side of the spectrum. This is an interesting but not as integrated as I would like. It transitions between flavors rather than blending them. Tasty enough but far sweeter than I prefer, it’s not a beer that I’m likely to purchase again.

Bottle into Chimay glass, purchased at Frugal McDougals, Nashville. Subdued dark orange and clear in the glass with a fluffy foam head. Smells flowery with leafy green hops and a bitt of buttery bread. The flavor of this beer is an interesting combination of big juicy fruits (like grapefruit but without any sourness) and earthy/salty/cobwebby in the middle; a bit too much unfermented sugar hanging around, and this does err on the side of being syrupy in the feel (although you don’t notice it all the time); the pomegranate comes through more as the beer warms, and the earthy notes take on a seedy, resinous quality. This is never great, but it’s tasty (in sort of an off-hand way, interesting like a trinket in a tourist shop that you know you’d never buy but you pick it up anyway and play with it a little). Fizzy and soapy in texture. I like it more than most, I guess.

Tap at the Brickskeller. Bronzy, cherry red pour, very close to clear. Simple aroma of soapy hops and children’s tylenol, which finds a more authentic line into cherry and raspberry eventually. Hint of cassis and walnut. Taste is burley and big; sweetness is carefully bridled. Crisp and bitter with peach skin, grapefruit, and cedar; false diet soda sweetener and odd intimations of hickory barbecue tanginess toward the finish. Thick palate with a rough edge that’s almost rounded. Slight phenolic band-aid coating after swallowing; not terribly ugly, but unpleasant. Altogether, quite boring.

Semi-cloudy, dark reddish-amber body. Medium, rocky, off-white head with decent retention. After about 10 minutes, the head finally settles to a small rim. The aroma is really big on caramel. I also picked up mild hops, some ripe red fruits (maybe fresh cherries), apple juice, and a little muscat. The flavor is heavily based on sweet caramel, with a surprising amount of floral hoppiness. Its quite fruity, with hints of white desert wine in the background. I didn’t get any pomegranate, however. The body is on the heavy side of medium, slightly sticky and cloying. There is a long, bitter hoppy finish. Only complaint is the sticky palate. Nice brew.

Thanks to Juancho. Nice different brew with the pomegranate juice. Tart and hoppy with a very dry finish. Only but, it lacks a little bit of depth. But overall very nice.

Name: Genesis 10:10
Brewery: Shmaltz Brewing Co
Date: June 07, 2006
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting
Appearance: clear amber, whispy beige head
Aroma: light sweet fruity malt aroma
Flavor: well blended fruit and malt flavors, light bitterness

Name: Genesis 10:10
Brewery: Shmaltz Brewing Co
Date: October 15, 2009
Mode: bottle
Source: tasting
Score: 2.6 to 3.0
Aroma: lots of earthyness remains in the aroma, light fruityness
Flavor: sweet and fruity flavor, picking up a bit of sherry in the fruityness

Aroma: 6/10; Appearance: 6/10; Flavor: 6/10; Palate: 6/10; Overall: 12/20
Rating: 3/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: *4