The Bruery Batch 1 (Levuds)

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

A beautiful beer with a lot of aroma and flavour. A nice reddish-brown pour with ample sweet malt and fruit tones. The flavour starts out with medium sweetness from the malts and fruits, and has a nice bitter finish. A very good beer.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Pours a medium yellow, slight haze, good white foam that dies down to sticky lacing .. . reminds me of an imperial saison, pepper, honey .. . light muddled mouth, a nice brew but not worthy of its rareness, still honored to have tried it with friends though.. .. Me fail English? That’s unpossible.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 8

This Belgian Strong Ale pours a deep orange gold color from a 750ml bottle. Medium sized white foamy head, nice lacing with quickly diminishing retention. The aroma is fruity, peaches and apricots with some spices. A medium bodied Belgian Strong Ale. The malts are orange and peaches, pears and other fruit. Hops are floral and earthy. Nice spices. Lots and lots of small carbonation bubbles. Hides the alcohol very well. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly sweet.

Aroma: 5 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 5 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 5

Bottle: Poured a clear deep golden color ale with a small bubbly head with average retention and no lacing. Aroma of candi sugar with some dry European hops and floral notes also noticeable. Taste is dominated by sweet malt which borderlines on being gross with not much else in terms of characteristics. Body is somewhat oily with some low carbonation but no alcohol flavor. This is a sweet mess with no carbonation and must admit if also my first disappointment from a usually fine brewery.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 5 | Overall: 6

Bottle shared by sloth at State Line. Pour was full amber-ish color, nice generous white colored head with some splotchy lacing on the way down. The aroma was fruity, spicey, malty sweet. The flavor followed, definite big malt presence, but also a ton of grass and spicey zing to the hop finish, off-aftertaste, plasticy-chemical? The floral and spicey notes combined to give that styrene or off-plastic type flavor I've had in a few beers, and not in a great way. Too much malt sweetness to be excellent, but a nice brew. Thanks again, Bert, always good times, had been a while, too long! Cheers!

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 8

Bottle # 1340 / 2157; Sampled June 2008
A fairly vigorous pour produces a fat-one-finger thick, pale tan colored head. The beer is a clear amber color that shows a very clear, orangish copper hue when held up to the light. The aroma smells quite fruity as soon as I start to pour this with notes of ripe pear and cantaloupe being noticeable. A closer inspection focuses more on the pear notes, but also adds aromas of apples, star-fruit, kiwi and even white wine varietal grape notes. Cracker like grain aromatics as well as a touch of honey-like grain (without adding any sweet aromas though) portray the malt character up front, while toastier pale malt notes of bread and biscuits are found towards the finish of the aroma. Warm alcohol notes definitely are here and can be quite noticeable at times if I spend too much time smelling the nose. Spice notes reminiscent of lemon zest, earthy coriander, woody pepper, a touch of young ginger and a fair amount of clove are noticeable as well. This has a nice nose, it is not as refined as Duvel, but I like that it is quite a bit more expressive and complex.

Rich tasting, without being heavy, and with a soft sweetness up front that accentuates a rich fruit-character. Up front flavors of green raisins, pears, apples are accentuated by both the light sweetness and a light tartness. A bit spicy in the finish with some noticeable, warming alcohol notes that create a pepper-like sensation. This has a certain savoriness to it that seems to be hop derived; light herbal, with a touch of earthiness to it and a touch of lemon zest; perhaps it is best described as like lemon-verbena. Very drinkable for a beer of this strength; the soft, creamy mouthfeel helps this to slide down the throat and it is fairly light bodied, especially considering the strength. This has some spiciness to it, but much other than the solid clove phenolics seem hidden at times underneath the more noticeable fruity esters. As it warms it picks up a bit more spiciness with notes of white pepper, and a tongue numbing spiciness that seems turpene laden but is also likely influenced by higher alcohol notes. As it warms the fruit flavors become a bit more expressive, even picking up some notes akin to ripe apricots.

This is definitely a tasty brew and it is going to age quite nicely for quite some time. It is going to be hard to hold on to any for an extended period of time though. I really like the expressive fruit character that this beer has, it almost evokes thoughts of complex desert wines. Like Duvel, as it warms up this picks up a ton of complexity; in this case the added strength and fermentation character boost this to a whole other level, making this much different than a Duvel clone. It definitely works though as the added character is still well integrated and tasty.

Purchased: South Bay Drugs Pharmacy, Imperial Beach CA