HeBrew Miraculous Jewbelation Eighth Anniversary Ale

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

(Bottle) Pours deep dark red to brown. Deep malty aroma with almond paste, bread, grain and some chocolate, caramel,fudge and toffee. Somme bitter hoppy tones. Small hints of smoke and maybe some light tones of dried fruits as well. Lightly roasted and toasted flavour with a lot of malty tones of bread, syrup, caramel, toffee and fudge. Hints of liquorice. Almond paste and stone. This beer is almost three years old so the hops plays second part but the are definitely present. Finish is light bitter and medium dry. Medium sweet. Medium to full body

Bottle sampled on 8/9/06: Pours a barely transparent dark brown with a spotty-lacing light tan head. Aroma has some bittersweet, lightly chocolatey malts with a touch of toasty caramel. Body starts with an aged sweet caramel maltiness with lots of chocolate and a touch of bittering hops. Decent mild complexity and balance throughout.

22oz Bomber - courtesy of beastiefan. Pours a deep brown with a substantial tan head. Pruney, dark chocolate raisiny aroma. Great malty flavor, that paralells the aroma. Dark fruit notes, roasty chocolateyness, brown sugar. Finish is roasty and long. Simple, but somewhat enjoyable.

Tap at Barcade. Dark brown ruby tint and a thick tan head. Sweet malty aroma. Very oxidized port-like aroma. Molasses, chocolate and cocoa aroma along with brown sugar and toast. The flavour is a bit sour and the palate is a bit thin. Plenty of sherryish oxidized sweetness. Raisiny and plummy. The hops are muted but they come through on the finish as fairly bitter, but without a great deal of flavour. This is kind of muddled and in pretty poor condition for a brew this big after only a year and a half. Not for me.

Deep brown with some red & a bit cloudy. Aroma is sweet, with elements of fig, butter, cherry, & a bit of spice. Taste is sweet & bready (toasted english muffins with butter) with some buttery-fruit, mainly cherry & nectarine. Medium-to big bodied with a nice finish. This one probably hit its peak a year ago or so, but still pretty good. Nice one from He’Brew if you can find it.

I was assured by the person who sold me this beer that it ages well. So here goes... The aroma is very malty with hints of coffee and dark fruit. The appearance is purple/brown with a thin but persistent head. The flavor is sweet with heavily toasted malt, spice. and moderately bitter hops. The palate is thick. The finish is a little metallic but I think this beer mellowed out real well. Happy Hanukkah everybody.

Quite a deviation in the last four scores... 4.5, 3.5, 3.3, 4.4. I think I am somewhere in between. Rich dark brown, light tan creamy head. Aroma has dark fruits, malty, cherry, vanilla, christmas spices. Pretty full. Flavor is a earthy fruity malt. Pretty rich and creamy with some rootbeer sweetness, figs, and chocolatey brown malt. Slight sweet toffee/coffee in finish. Good stuff.

Opaque dark brown, nearly black, with only a shy ruby showing through when held up to a strong light. Cappachino, yellowy tan top of firm, foamy suds sink to a mediumish height once the pouring stops. Keeps a broken skim and a solid collar always present. slowly placed lacing displays itself in short strings along the glass. Aroma is a bit deep and dark with a good amount of milk chocolate laced with hints of vanilla, roast, and fudge. Flavors are solid and thick with enormously long chocolatelyness infused with all sorts of cookie dough ingredients. Vanilla and the like. Just a tug of roastyness slips in towards the middle and end. So much chocolate though; yummy, yum chocolate. Quite a nice exhibition of stature and firm, lasting flavors that go hand in hand with its amazing Stotu-like body and smoothness. Which brings us to the superbly smooth and thick body of this beer. Very full, very smooth, and quite silky with a tone, that of which could be much like a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie right out of the oven. One fantastic Brown ale. This is what all Browns should be like. Yes, its not quite the true version of what a Brown should be, as this is definatley big and stout-like in nearly all its character. So who cares, this stuff is solid and unbelievably good. Outstandingly so...