Rock Art The Riddler?

Brewed by Rock Art Brewery
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Morrisville, Vermont USA

Bottle... Clear ruby ale with a small, fizzy, off-white head. Good retention. The aroma is of a sweet, Brooklyn, NY chocolate egg cream; Hershey’s syrup with a touch of lactic acid. Chocolaty, Belgian dubbel flavor. No European yeast complexity, but a nice, malty experience nonetheless. Hints of dark raisins and lactic acidity. Full-bodied and lightly oily with medium carbonation. Gently bitter, mineral, dry finish. Bottle provided by growler. Thanks Scott!

22 oz bomber. This beer pours to a murky, deep caramel to brown color, with a tall, rocky, tan head, and a moderate carbonation. Lots going on in this nose here, with big aromas of sweet and caramel malts, prune, light roast, dark chocolate, and some spicy yeast. Like with the nose, alot going on here, The palate is firm, with lots of big sweet malt, chocolate, raisins, prune, and flavors of coffee and roast. There is also an underpinning of rock candy/rum like sweetness, that leads into a peppery/yeasty finish that lingers yeasty and spicy. No dobut a riddle, this beer can be a bit overwhelming and a bit confusing on the palate. There is just so much going on here. That being said, this beer is a fun ride, and worth a try in my opinion. When all was said and done, I enjoyed drinking this one, and has liked "working" on this beer, as I sipped and savored.

Influencée par une levure belge ? Il n’y a rien dans cette bière qui rappelle moindrement une bière belge. À part une belle mousse, tout y est désordre. Amertume grossière et malts gras (munich ?)

Bomber drunk on 8/24/07
Another very nicely conditioned bottle, with a humongous, rather dense, well-retained head and moderate lacing. Head is a chalky-beige while the body is a dark amber-mahogany. Clarity is medium-high to high.
Sweet caramel-like malts in the nose are joined by mild esters and somewhat-more-than-mild phenols, lending a black and white pepper-like nose. Breadiness sits on the end, with hints of roast and chocolate that keep things quite dry. As it warms/breathes the sweetness gets a bit stronger, and that maltiness gets a bit more sloppy, lending too much breadiness and an almost bittersweet caramel-vanilla note. Too much yeast activity without the requisite bottle refermentation to help smooth things out (no yeast to re-uptake all the phenols and other biproducts). Medium strength of aroma, light alcohol vapors on the finish.
Rather basic, aromatic-like malts lend caramel and some touches of raisin and roast, while creamy-sweet vanilla and honey notes are too sweet with warming and give way to strong phenolic spiciness, bordering astringency, on the finish. Due to the carbonation, the texture is strong however, with fairly tight carbonation. Gets too bready and yeasty on the finish (with minerals and chalkiness that don’t seem appropriate), however, and there’s some overt alcohol as well. Rather uninspiring, pseudo-Belgian in my book.

Post- Mondial Tasting. Brown sugar aroma, some chocolate too, deep brown, pours a small toffee head. Flavour is bitter, almondy, woody as well. Light bodied, bitter. Good.

Bomber - Pours a somewhat cloudy dark brown in color with a small off-white head that faded to a thin covering on the top of the beer. Aroma is strong of a Belgian-type yeast and roasted malts. In spite of the small head, it is fairly carbonated, but not excessively. Flavor is strong (intense?) of roasted malts, bread-dough yeast and dark fruit. The yeast is a bit overpowering and adds a tartness. Some hop bitterness. Somewhat harsh and could use some aging.

Bomber - Much like their other offerings, the flavor imparted by their house yeast really overpowers this one - it looks nice - dark ruby with a creamy tan head - aroma of cocoa and caramel, with some vinous, fruity character and light dough - the flavor slams the palate with the rock art taste - this subsides briefly for some dry cocoa and brown sugar flavors, along with some earthy tartness - then it’s all that original taste again - I like it a lot more than some of their other offerings, but I guess that isn’t saying much.

Bottle. Pours an opaque dark brown amber. Aroma is dark fruits and spices. Taste is dark malt and fruits w/toasty/liquorice. Finishes with a strong alcohol bite that I found kinda off-putting. It would have been very good if it wasn’t for that.