Troll Shangrila

Brewed by Birrificio Troll
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Vernante, Italy

This was a fun and interesting beer. Pours cloudy orange with a small off-white head. The aroma has a weird blend of spices - anise, allspice, cinnamon and tangerine rind. Medium body with good crispness and some sharp prickly carbonation. The flavor starts with sweet toasty malt, anise, orange rind and a swirl of spice flavors with curry and garlic standing out. The finish has spicy pepper and such. These are a bunch of flavors that shouldn’t work together, but they hit the spot for me.

A very licorice, cinnamon smell to the beer with a citrus smell to it also. Taste is very rind-like and sugary-caramel malt. I definitely taste the garlic too. Not to overwhelming in any aspect. Very crisp initially and the garlic really does work in the beer. Very decent and underrated for what it is.

Bottle. Nearly clear burnt orange with a large head. Aroma is exotic spices and pale malt. Spices I found most prominent were yellow curry, garlic and cumin, just to scratch the surface. I found it unpleasant. Maybe it’s an acquired taste, but I won’t be trying it again.
Have you ever been eating Indian food, and you bite into something that you aren’t sure you should eat, but you don’t want to look like a pig and spit it out? That’s this beer all over.

Pours a cloudy dark amber color with a medium white head. Nice looking. Kind of a musty, funky malt aroma. You could tell there was ton of ingredients in this, and rom looking at the commercial description, I was right. Such a unique aroma, I cant even name anything by name. The flavor has a big malt and spice character to it as well. I get a very unique flavor, almost like a mild tomato flavor in there too. The other peppery spices were there as well. Really unique taste. I cant say that I really liked it, because it might have been a little wierd for me, but it was interesting to say the least.

Pours deep amber into a snifter. Off-white conglomerate head leaves spot lacing as it recedes. Ginger, cumin and paprika aromas. Crisp and dry with upfront caramel and a lasting sweetly spiced finish. Makes me tired.

Cloudy, but Dimly Vibrant Apple Cider with White Head. Grapey, Dry Herbs and Woody Aroma. Medium Mouthfeel...Although Subtle Sweetness Pokes Through, Very Much a Dry Brew. Hints of Grape...Mostly Herbal Notes and Dried Fruit. Anise, Curry, Pepper and Woody Dryness Come Through the Most, but Very Nice Floral Qualities to this Brew. Some Nice Complexity... Overall a Very Interesting and Enjoyable Brew. Highly Recommend Eating Something Sweet Like Chocolate Alongside it.

Quite orange in color, just hints of brown, with a thin, almost nonexistent, off-white head. Interesting, complex, herbal tea aroma, somewhat spicy (pepper) with fermented honey. A decent body is the foundation for the tea-like melange of flavors and the light, sweet malt. There is a somewhat offensive flavor in the finish that tastes like chlorine that does dissipate after the beer gets closer to room temperature.

Well my answer to "WTF is tandori" in my notes is answered here. This matches at least part of what was intriguing me on this one. Notes are as follows: Bomber: Pours amber with big rolling head. Happy birthday to me! Thanks to my sister for this one. Up front earthy peat with a good touch of corriander and some cumin with a touch of pepper in the nose and end of body. Legs ring glass with each quaff and stay there untill scrubbed off. Sparse carbonation during the workbench session. The minimalist label is nice. Guess I should have read the label, anise pepper curry? and (WTF is Tandori?) guess its like scrapple. A great way to unwind after a day of cutting wood and work about the house.