Stewarts Decathlon (10th Anniversary)

Formerly brewed at Stewarts Brewing Company
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Bear, Delaware USA

On tap at the Kennett Square Brew Fest (connoisseur session). Poured a medium and cloudy golden color with a smaller sized white head. Aromas of light spices, fruits, and citrus. Tastes of spices, citrus, bananas, and fruity. Some alcohol in the finish. This one was very sweet. One of the best Stewars beers I’ve had.

Slowly fading white head covers a hazy golden hue. Hay-like pils malts lets the beautiful floral and grassy, both lemony and herbal hops shine and entice the drinker. Pear drop, medicinal phenols and tea notes add the necessary original touches to mark the memory. The palate is full, mineral with adequate Belgian carbonation and a light citric bite. Obvious alcohol never stands in the way. Excellent!

The Lure:
Honey ammunition and peachy admonishments end in bready yeast astonishment. Potent cognition using a bold, sweet ignition.

The Festivities:
A citrus fruit plantation is where this honey sweet incantation takes place. An invitation for full mouthfeels and smooth hop incitations. Hot but never burning, this is well-balanced for its strength. Strangely, the brewer "promised" me that he would never brew it again. Too bad for Delaware...

Transcendence:
Refusing an award.

Wow, this is my surprise of the year for 2005, and one of the reasons I drink beer and frequent brewpubs to begin with. What a beer. It pours dark straw in the 5 ounce snifter it is served in, with 2-finger white head. The aroma is huge, with pears, grapes, berries, perfumy florals and spices, hopcit, and alcohol. I smelled this for 5 minutes, and at times it smelled like a fine Niagara white wine, and then the Belgian strong ale aromas would seep in. In that regard, the aroma reminded me of Weyerbacher Propecy on steroids. The flavor was fruity and Belgian triply, with tons of fruit at front and mid-palates, and floral spices and hopcit emerging at mid-palate. The beer was on the sweet side, but never cloying. The flavor was as complex as the aroma. It gets a bit drier as it warms, but never loses the huge fruit and spicy floral elements. If a genie granted me 3 wishes, one of them would be for a year’s supply of this beer. If you live anywhere close to Delaware, do yourself a favor and go get some of this. It’s that damned good.

Tannin-full, orange, fruity and floral aroma. Hazy orange-tan coloured body is topped by a decent, fine bubbled, white head that recedes to partial cover with nice lacing. Fruity, leafy and moderately bitter flavour with some alcohol apparent. Light pointy carbonation to the medium body with some alcohol warming. Sampled at Kennett Square Brewfest 2005.

Poured a hazy golden color with a small, white head that left light lacing on the glass. Aroma of spices, citrus, was very fruity, some caramel malt, yeast and light alcohol as well. Taste of candy sugar, citrus fruits, bubblegum, light pepper, and an alcoholic backbone. Decent, but nothing mind-blowing.

Pours a clear golden color with a thin white head. Very good aroma of fruits, spices and yeast. Very good flavor of fruits, spices and yeast with a bitter finish. The body is light to medium with a creamy texture and soft carbonation. Very good, this comes as a surprise since I’ve never heard of this brewery.

Oct. 2005 rating - Poured golden color with smallish head...probably due to the high alcohol content of the beer. The smell was alcohol, the taste was alcohol. Okay, sure, there were other spices and fruits and candy sugar and all that belgiany stuff, but the alcohol in this beer was not masked well at all.