Three Floyds Alpha Kong

Brewed by Three Floyds Brewing Company
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Munster, Indiana USA

red tinted tan. candy aroma with spicey yeast notes. fantastic aroma. taste is rich berry and dark fruit with a dry dirty tint in a good way. this is something to chew on. notes of sweet apricot and something similar to the bite of a good hot sauce. very nice. great hop notes in the finish, great sweetness and spice. wondeful. 3F’s needs to experiment like this more often. my favorite beer from the strong ale fest.

Sextuple? Is that a double triple? Trancendent beer. I cannot get information from anywhere about future batches. Still have 7-8 bottles, but have to hoard them until I get more information.

I have had this beer several times. You really need to get a few guys togeither and just sip it out of 8 oz glasses. It pours rather thick. The smell is sweet with apricot and babana and clove. The taste is very seet and full. Overall probably my favorite beer right now.

Tap @ GTMW. Love the new artwork, by the way. Semi hazy copper brown in color with no head. Aroma is cleansing, with attributes of yeast, anise, nutmeg, starch, recently dried clothes, orange rind and curacau. Holy flavor - it’s off the charts! Bitter-sweet orange crème with such a heavy, dense palate load. Nutmeg, cinnamon and sweet nectar pan out in this all out flavor brigade. Some caustic flavor element of honey soaked plantains serve as a spawn from the generative sweet malt support. Sticky, chewy and utterly uncompromising. Orange peel and honey in texture and taste. Such a cacophony of flavors. Some dactylic alcohol, but that’s bygones as this is utterly fantastic.

On-tap @ Three Floyds Brewpub... Listed on the beer menu as a Sextuppel. Artwork on the tapper is very cool (as always from Three Floyds) Shiny reddish/orange color. Aroma is mostly spices, yeast, sweet malts, and mild fruits. I really did not get my hopes up for this one, as I didn’t think an American brewery focusing on hops and extreme American styles could pull this off with much success.. I couldn’t be more glad I was wrong. The taste has the Belgian flair that you can easily pin down, but with a great fresh spice taste and a big-time sweetness that I swear has a life of it’s own. Rumor has it this beer’s huge sweetness comes from rare imported sugar from East Indonesia..at least that’s what they told us at the brewpub...but whatever it is, I’ve never tasted it in a belgian. The alcohol is very well hidden, but can be sensed by the nearly instant intoxication after a few sips. Mouthfeel is full and carbonation is quite low. This baby slides down as easy as a 4% pilsner..absolutely no agressive/harsh tastes..just sweet, spicy, perfection. Truth be told, American brewers can (and have) beat many Belgians at their own game..this is one clear example. Don’t get me wrong..i love a good true Belgian (from there) just as much as the next guy, but I simply cannot think of a beer at 15.5% that can top this killer. Damn, I love when breweries have the balls to come out with insane beers like this, because when they pay off, they’re simply incredible...and this one is.

Pours hazy orange with thin off white head. Aroma of alcohol, toffee, and sugar. Taste is caramel, dark fruits, and toffee. Medium mouthfeel with nice alcohol burn in the finish. Way too easy drinking for 13%. Another great beer by an outstanding brewery.

Growler ala BBB63 @ the March Tosa tasting. Light brown color with fluffy beige head and small flicks of lace. Light smoke, soap and yeast aromas. Not the sickening soap the real light floral soap. Some mild fruit such as plums and raisins as well. Smooth, Thick and chewy: now theres a palate. Drink or spoon out of the glass. Real taste of roasted marshmallows, that I have had in only a few belgians. Spices of cinnamon, nutmeg and mace with a touch of herbal wintergreen. Warms the gullet ever so slightly. Really like the spicy character in this one. Pour me another big snifter and I’m done for the night.

I just picked this one up in Chicago at $16.99 for a 22oz bomber...ouch! A little voice inside my head kept saying, "don’t waste your money", but I went ahead and bought one anyway. (I love hoppy beers, but I haven’t been too excited about the other hoppy, and/or high-gravity, and/or expensive 3F beers I’ve purchased.) Additionally, I had previously read some reviews about this one which made me think I might not like it. Well...It turns out I like this one a lot! The first thing I noticed was that there was very little "phhhitt" when I popped the cap. Carbonation is low with this bad boy. That’s too bad because more carbonation would certainly help cut the thickness of this brew and improve it. Next, I noticed the aroma which heavily consists of spices (think clove) and bananas. The aroma (and the taste) remind me somewhat of a potent German wheat beer. However, AK is much thicker and sweeter than any German wheat beer I’ve had. Could this be a quadruple weizenbock? If you like the flavors found in weizenbiers or weizenbocks, try this one. There’s a nice, clear, amber color to the beer, but there’s no head (which corresponds with the low carbonation). There’s a bit of hot alcohol character mixed in with the flavor along with an alcohol bite in the finish, but for a beer of this strength, it’s surprisingly drinkable...at least in small sips. The malt and spiciness dominate in this brew with hops taking an almost indistinguishable backseat. I read some other reviews that claimed this beer is sweet and syrupy. That’s somewhat true, but it’s not as over-the-top sweet as a fresh Samichlaus, Thomas Hardy, or JW Lees Harvest (none of which I like when they’re fresh), and it’s nothing like the sickly-sweet Beast Grand Cru and Samael from Avery which went down my drain. However, AK does remind me a bit of Avery’s Reverend, but with a more evident alcohol character and burn. Even though AK is on the "sweet side", I still find it totally drinkable as it stands today. Still, if there was more carbonation, this beer would be even better. Well, it’s nice to see something quite different being produced by 3F and also something that I (surprisingly) enjoyed a lot. I still think the price doesn’t fit the contents of the bottle, but unlike most other high-priced 3F beers I’ve had, I might actually revisit this one in the future. Until then, I’ll be content drinking The Reverend at 1/3 the price of AK.