HeBrew Jewbelation Bar Mitzvah Thirteenth Anniversary Ale

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

Bomber. Opaque chocolate with a lasting covering of creamy bubbles. Aroma of molasses, oranges, chocolate and wood. Tastes of raisin, orange-vanilla, dates, chocolate, caramel and a big bitterness of peppery oak and citrus zest that more than tames the big malt. Heavy body is not syrupy at all, dangerously drinkable, and well dried long into the bitter aftertaste. Well hidden 13%. Mazel Tov!

Appearance: Pours a coffee black with no head. Aroma: Toffee, caramel, sweet roast, coffee and chocolate. Taste: Caramel, coffee, vanilla, burnt malt and a spicy hop note in the finish. Mouthfeel: Thick and medium to high carbonation. Overall: This beer seemed more balanced for such a monster as opposed to what came out for last years Jewbelation. It straddles hearty and decadent. I have had samples of 10, 11, and 12, and I can say this with confidence, the beer ages well. Pick up a few,at $5-7.00 a bottle, it is well worth the investment.

Enjoyed on tap in a whiskey snifter. The beer pours a very deep brown to almost black, with a small (given the small top of the glass) tan head. The nose is difficult to apprehend at first, and continues to be slight throughout the beer’s consumption; eventually showing some dark fruit and alcohol. The palate is a bit more telling: a nice and semi-sweet melange of malty flavors. Bitterness is there to balance, but seems to be far less pronounced than in other American strong ales. A touch of alcohol comes in towrd the finish, but is generally impressively muted througout the palate, given the high gravity of the beer. Overall, not perfect, but impressively subtle, given its heft.

Bottle:   Deep brown, almost black, large to moderate frothy beige head, spotty lacing.   Huge, strong, alcoholic malty aroma.   Reminds me of a Dubbel on steroids.   Can’t say that the fig/date aspect is there, but if it were, it would be drowned in some sort of alcohol.   Very fiery nose.   Heavy maltiness on the tongue, just HUGE fig/date flavors, amidst a huge alcoholic background.   Each year this beer almost becomes too unpalatable because it tries to become maltier, hoppier, and just plain bigger.   I somewhat dread the 14th Anniversary.   Its like a Double Dubbel, one that is just spanking new and very alcoholic.   It doesn’t burn as much as I would have thought for a 13% beer, but it is extremly warming.   Body and mouthfeel are full to moderate.   Finish is strong and alcoholic.   Dubbel on steroids I would say.   More of an American Strong of sorts than a Belgian Dubbel.   Hmmm... wondering how the hell the 14th will be given that this is beer is like a punch in the face.

bottle poured a brown in color with a thin sturdy layer of light tan head. aroma has dark fruit, sweet malt, raisin, and a hefty whack of alcohol heat. mouth feel is heavy and coating and has thick sugars. flavor has dark fruits, raisin, dark malt, mild bitterness, and a huge smack of alcohol on the end.

Bottle thanks to bu11zeye. The smell is fruits, sweet, dark, malts, and floral. The look is brown in color and it has an off white head. The taste is sweet, fruits, caramel, toffe, and alcohol.

I’ve been looking forward to this beer all winter. Tap at the Ginger Man (NYC). Pours dark brown with reddish highlights. Thin and creamy-lookin beige head. Arouma of dark fruits, cherries. More big fruits in the taste: prunes and cranberries and brown sugar. Excellent lacing. Finishes with huge, warming alcohol character and hop bitter and some astringency that sits on the tongue. Beer is nicely "slippery"... it slides right through the mouth. Excellent!

On tap @ Dunderbaks. Pours deep amber brown. Nose is huge malts, chocolate, raisin, prunes, earthy hops, hints of coffee. Flavor is a malt bomb! Big warming alcohol, chocolate, roasted malt, spice caramel and toffee.