HeBrew Jewbelation Eleven

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

Tasted 1/8/08. 22oz bomber. Deep brown hue with a ruby tint. Finger width of quickly dissipating beige head. Cocoa and plummy aromas. Chocolate and bready. Resinous citrus hop aroma with a grape note. Slight alcohol presence. Initiall sweet with smooth toffee and chocolate flavors. Peppery anise. Fruity yet layered. Big alcohol with raisina dn plum notes. Berries and citrus fruits. Sticky piney resinous hop flavor. Big, but so good. Alcohol is prevalent, but not enough to stop drinking. Coffee acidity and a nice roast. Citrus acidity. Nutty and fruity. Rolling palate with big and rough transitions. Complex lingering finish. WOW!

Pours a dark brown with big tan head. Surprisingly easy to drink for such a strong beer. Rich and sweet, but not overpowering. Aroma is sweet with fruity notes. Slight bitter aftertaste. This stuff got me good and buzzed. MMMmmmmm...

Bottle: Pours a dark chocolate brown with a minimal cream halo of a head. Aroma of roasted and chocolate malts, pine, and a subtle floral hint. Some molasses and anise come through as it warms. Medium-full bodied, very silky. Creamy, chocolate malt and coffee flavor set the tone which leads into a wonderful dry, hop finish. Very good stuff.

Delayed entry from Tasting at Holiday Beerfest in Omaha: Medium brown pour, off-white head. Aroma is mostly malt and dark fruit (in particular raisin) with some liquor in there as well...fairly intense. Flavor is similar to aroma...dark fruit and malt abound, but the level of alcohol was over-the-top on this one...just a bit too much. Good mouthfeel.

Pours with a frothy, reasonably tightly beaded, lightly browned, tan colored head. The beer is almost black, but shows a touch of amber in its darkness. When held up to the light though it shows a brilliantly clear, super concentrated red color. The aroma is quite fruity, almost in an over-ripe manner; substantial prune, raisin notes and a brandy like fruitiness that is amplified by softly, warming alcohol. Actually the over-ripe fruit description is definitely apt for the aroma of this beer; it is a mix of blackened banana, mushy plum, and mealy apple aromatics. I really can’t get past the over-ripe fruit aromatics here, other than the alcohol I can’t really smell anything.

Quite thick and viscous feeling as it rests on my tongue; the beer is creamy feeling as well. Sweet and fruity, though it does not have quite as much of the over-ripe fruit notes as the aroma. The fruit character contributes flavors of banana and prunes and doesn’t really get over-ripe till the end. Dark, roast malt notes dominate the finish, providing an austere, burnt, slightly acidic. This tasted green and unfinished somehow; a definite, sort of bad, vegetal note is found through the middle and finish of this brew. The hop character shows up as a bitterness that melds in with the burnt grain character towards the end of a sip.

Really this is best described as an overly ripe, definitely burnt, slightly concentrated plum. Definitely interesting, but not all that good.

Purchased: <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/Places/ShowPlace.asp? Liquors, Tucson AZ

22 oz bomber. Very dark brown/black beer with a creamy dark tan/light brown head. Quite oily on the pour. Very rich sweet malty aroma. Lightly plummy with a nice raisiny sweetness. A bit of chocolatey malt character and some light rumminess. Quite rich smelling but not overly sweet. Flavour is excellent, rich dark malt, light plum, raisin and a light leathery character as well. The bitterness is there, but it’s very well-integrated with the rummy/plummy sweetness. A kiss of roastiness and some demerara sugar. A really excellent brew and the best of these anniversary beers from HeBrew.

Pours from the bomber a fairly viscous opaque black color. Shows off some faint ruby-red hues when held to the light. Pour creates a nice 1" thick tan head with persistant wisps of paisley shaped foam as head subsided. Moderate aromas of roasted malts, rum-soaked dark dried fruits, chicory and dark chocolate are noted along with some faint citrus/spice hop notes lingering in the background. Mouthfeel was quite full, round and creamy with a fine carbonation. Flavors start on the sweet side with fairly assertive notes of figs, raisins, semi-sweet chocolate, dark rum and molasses. Finishes on the flip side with a firm burnt malt, espresso bean, charred wood and citrus rind bitterness with a warming up-front alcohol presence. Impresses me as a hybrid Impy Stout/American Strong Ale style. A pleasant sipper on a cold, rainy night. A nice value at $4.99.

Poured a very dark brown with an almost stout-like brown head. Had strong aromatics, perhaps some nutmeg, dried fruit. A rich warm aroma filled with dried frutes and some spices, medium to light hop aroma. It provided some bitter chocolate flavors with a smattering of warm spices...can’t quite put my finger on it. Overall it seems a little over done which really hurts the drinkability.