Victory V12

Brewed by Victory Brewing Company
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Downingtown, Pennsylvania USA

750 mL bottle. Ice tea hued body with a half inch of foamy beige bubbles. Nose is big sweet bBelgian with hints of yeast and floral notes. Taste-very sharp CO2, brown sugar, bready, green raisin, amber candi sugar, alcohol, and fruity. Reminds me very much of Uni’s Terrible. Spot on for the style.

2003. Poured a clear orange color with a thin off-white head. Sweet candy aroma. Malty with alcohol notes. Sweet malty flavor with light fruit. Moslty sweet finish. Light bitterness on the finish.

March 05 bottle. Pours out giant heads, not sure if it is beginning to get infected or if this is just the way the beer is supposed to pour. Body is lively with carbonation, almost like drinking a Unibroue beer. Smell is fruity and yeasty with it tasting very much the same. The 12% is no where to be found, it drinks like a 4% abv beer. The 12% is noticable once you slam it down and feel the buzz. A good beer, probably not something I would go out of my way to find, but if it was there I would get it. A pretty strong offering from Victory.

March ’05 Bottle: Holy honkin’ head, this one was a difficult pour. Only got 3 ounces or so into each of my and bfeld’s glasses before the head hit the brim on both. Repeated the process a few more times and had to leave 10oz or so in the bottle while we worked on the glasses. Aroma was nice, standard spicey and orange type aromas with some alcohol detectable. Flavor was much of the same with candy sugar and some hops also coming forth. The carbonation was high (must be if you can get that much head in 12%ABV) and may have overstimulated the taste buds. Each sip finished with a rather bitter lingering aftertaste and the overall flavor was a bit rough for the style. If you are holding one of these right now, put it away and age it for a good year or so. This one definitely needs to mellow a bit before I can get excited about it. Re-rate on Jan 06 bottle in Mar 06: Nothing changed except the head, which was much more tame. Missed color on the first sampling, this one was amber orange with some brownish colors. Re-rate, Aug 09: Strong sweet light fruits in the fore, peaches, apples, etc... Strong bread notes, strong yeast, some phenolic character with clovey elements. Bitterness all from the yeast. Alcohol noticeable.

Sampled at Noogfest-2. Nice copper color with a very light haze. Sweet Belgian candy aroma with clove, marshmallow, and other spice. The flavor is similar with sweet Belgian spice (cinnamon and allspice), candy and bready yeast. Sticky, oily medium body. Fair.

750 ml bottle that was corked on March 29th of 05. I wish I had read that yesterday and I would have opened it on its one year birthday. Dark amber pour with a beautiful foamy head. Aromas of molassas, caramel, prune and other dark fruits. Flavors are very barely wine. Lots of malt. More Molassas, some banana, more dark fruits. Roastiness gives way to the alcohol that is present from the middle to the finish. Pretty darn good.

A light hazed amber pour with a sweet aroma of malt and alcohol. A sweet malty flavor that completely coats your mouth with a sweet film that the 12% can’t cut out.

From a caged cork 750ml. brown bottle with a bottled on date, Mar/29/05, a blurb with storing and serving instructions on the back label, sampled at cellar temperature in a chalice. Made a good appearance, poured a cloudy golden copper with a foamy pale tannish/off-white head that settled into a thin foamy lacing, good carbonation. Had a dry pear fruity, sweet grainy and floral hop nose with whiffs of spicy alcohol in the back ground. A crisp, carbonated smooth medium bodied mouth feel, average drinkability overall. Pear fruity and sugary malty taste, a mild floral hoppiness, a crisp and biting alcohol presence, jumps out at your tongue, warming through out the taste and a dry yeasty and malty finish with the pear fruity and alcohol warmth lingering in the palate. I don’t know why, but here lately I found beer from Victory to disappointing, I had been a big fan, and I’m afraid this was no exception, a disappointing Belgian strong ale taste wise, try at your own risk.