HeBrew Monumental Jewbelation Tenth Anniversary Ale

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

Had on tap at brew pub as part of sampler. Poured a very dark brown, tan head, good lacing. Tasted a lot of different flavors in this one. Plums, molasses, additional fruits, chocolate, and some spice. Well blended, but the finish is a bit hoppy and dry for me, but the husband LOVED this beer.

Bottle. Dark chocolate malt aroma with a very nice hop presence. Opaque with good sized light tan head and excellent lace. High alcohol profile with considerable hop presence. Has some qualities similar to an imperial stout. Dates, plums, molasses. Outstanding. A true winner and very underrated.

(Bottle) Pours a dark brown body with a small tan head. Aroma of raisin, licorice, cocoa, and toastiness. Flavor of hops, dark malts, licorice, molasses, and dark fruits with a dry finish.

Pours deep brown with a short lived tannish head. Aroma was mild Chocolate malts,hops pine and some toastiness. Tastes pretty much the same but quickly turns hoppy bitter with some dark fruit. ABV fairly well hidden. Not bad but probably would not buy again.

Bottle from Astor Liquors. Pours a very dark brown with a fizzy khaki head. Aroma of raisens, molasses, alchohol, and some faint roast. Starts of with flavors of mildly sweet milk chocolate, that transitions to flavors of dark fruit and spicy red wine. Bitter finish with a huge but pleasant alcohol presence, with some pepper and pine in the background. A nice but very aggressive beer. Not one for the wife to try. This is like a brown porter on steroids.

22oz bomber poured dark brown with frothy mocha head. The aroma is unfortunately too light and keeps this beer from being a top ten for me. I do smell hints of hops and some malt roastiness. But that took a bit of effort. The flavor has a wonderful mix of malts. I notice roasted malts, sweet molasses, caramel and beyond midway it becomes sweet chocolate malts and more caramel. Throughout there’s an assertive hop bitterness that continually tries to steal away the flavor from the malts. It seems to be mostly pine and possibly floral in nature. The bitterness does grow into the finish. A caramel and roasted maltiness meet at the finish and linger along with some hop bitterness. Yet another delicious brew from these fine brewers.

At the 2007 Big Beer, Belgians, & Barleywines Festival in Vail. Pours a dark amber to brown with a white head. Delicious flavor of apples, very ripe apples. Aroma of roasted caramel. Strong malty chocolate flavors. Thick and delicious but not hopped quite like I’d like it to be.

Bottle. Pours a thick dark black color with a nice tan head on top. Aroma is sweet and malty with hints of fruity hops. Chocolate, roasted malts, caramel, and a banana like aroma are in the beer too. Flavor profile is very similiar to the characteristics of a belgian more than what I consider an american strong ale. Hop presence is in the beer, mostly at the beginning. Following is flavors of caramel, toasted malt, and banana. The alcohol is well hidden making it pleasing for the palate. Better than what I expected it to be.