Rock Bottom Chicago Blitzen Ale

Brewed by Rock Bottom Chicago
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Chicago, Illinois USA

A striking looking drink in its goblet, golden orange with a lofty, creamy head. The aroma is quite sweet, very fruity - orange, banana, cherry - with spices and alcohol. The fruits are there in the taste, along with cloves and a peppery spiciness. And alcohol. This finishes on a sticky, swweet alcoholic note. A friendly, warming Belgian strong ale.

<font size=-4><a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/Places/ShowPlace.asp? Bottom Chicago, Chicago, IL<font size=-1>

Draft in a goblet at RB Chicago. Poured a medium dull golden/orange with not much more than a film of beige head. Nose was quite sweet, with bananas, light fruits, and some clove spiciness. Rather seductive flavor profile, just barely keeping the sweetness shy of cloying level... bananas and other light fruits on top, with a little bubblegum and a solid alcohol presence. Medium-bodied, leaving a lot of residual sweetness and cloves at the finish. Very nice brew that really packed a punch.

Draught at Rock Bottom Chicago. Pours hazy amber with a small frothy white mostly diminishing head, fair lacing. Aroma is heavy malt (straw, cereal), average hops (flowers, grass), average yeast (sweat, earth) with notes of alcohol, banana, butter and coriander. Full bodied, creamy texture, flat carbonation and a chalky finish. Long duration, moderate sweetness, light acidity and bitterness; salty.

Draft. Amber pour. Small white head. Nose is candyish and spicy. Sweet but peppery. The spice ends up dominating, however. Taste is sweet malts, cake, candy sugar, spices, orange peel, yeast and an almost gingerbread man like flavor. Very Christmasy. Body is thick and full. Sticky with low carbonation. Finishes with more spices, candyish notes, and yeast notes. Little too spicy for my personal preferences but still a decent Christmas beer.

In short: Tasty and sharp Belgian Strong Ale.
How: Tap at brewpub
The look: Clear golden body with a long-lasting off-white head.
In long: Quite a bit of honey flavour in this beer. Full sticky body. Carbonation was appropriately a bit more lively carbonation than most of their other beers. Lots of dry and citric hops in the finish. Some orange peels. Light acidity. Overall pretty sharp and almost aggressive. Probably the best beer I had at this brewpub. Nothing great but it made me glad I visited the pub, it wasn’t the first time I hit Rock Bottom, the first time was when my girlfriend dumped me, I lost my job and I was doing little tricks in a dark alley to get some food.

Head Brewer Pete Crowley kindly let me sample this delicious treat that he cooked up in his experimental kitchen recently. It's immense yeastiness and flavor have resulted in a dangerous situation: you can't taste the 10% alcohol at all! Otherwise, this is essentially just like a Belgian Strong Ale except that I feel the richness and yeast aromas are superior. All in all, an excellent effort!

Big bubblegum, light vinegar and fruit aroma. Oaky gold. Clear. medium sweet, boozy, woody, lots of yeast character. Medium light body. Edgy alcohol finish. Warming.

on tap. poured a golden yellow with almost no head. nose wasn’t much but some cloves, mint, tons of belgian candy sugar, and soft hints of caramel. flavor is really sweet but subtle hints of caramel, cloves, and orange and other fruits round it out. still pretty boozy and sticky.