Troll Shangrila

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

750 ml capped bottle. Poured in the original Troll snifter an unfiltered, light gushing and near opaque coloured ruby-brown coloured Spiced Ale with a small two fingers beige creamy foamy head that had a long retention and tong of micro bubbles. Sustained carbonation. Good lacing. A lot of floating sediments. The aroma is rich, toasted malts, fruity, red riped fuits, a bunch of flowers and spices and a high alcoolic presence. The flavour is toasted malts, notes of caramel, red riped fruits, berries, cherries, spicy, licorice, cinnamom. This medium to full bodied Spiced Ale has a long riped fruits and alcoolic finish. A very well balanced Spiced Ale. I appreciated the flavourful spicy and warming sides.

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

Shared bottle at RBNAG 2011. Amber colour. Moderate perfumed aroma, hints of acetone. Some malts in the flavour, bready notes, a slight acidity. Not impressive.

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

Bottle at tasting at Chris Fischer’s (from Liars Club) house. Pours with a deep amber-brown body topped by a medium thick head with a god amount of lacing. It’s sweet and malty with some floral notes. Medium to full bodied and warming.

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

A moderate pour produces an almost four finger thick, pale tan colored head that leaves some delicate lacing on the sides of my glass as it slowly subsides. The beer is a full amber color, when held up to the light the beer shows a hazy, red tinged, orangish, light amber color. The aroma has a light sweetness to it, smells sort of rich and has an intriguing mix of aromatics that are not easily placed, but seem to be produced by a confluence of malt and spice aromatics. A deeper inspection yields aromas that make me think of pears, sweet melons, fresh baked bread, fenugreek, sour apples, perhaps a hint of woodiness and some definite anise there towards the end. The spicing is quite subtle in this beer, it is really hard to pick out and if I didn't know about it I would definitely attribute the complexity of the nose to the yeast driven fermentation character. This has a really nice aroma to it, with soft, subtle notes that are fun to chase.

Sweet tasting up front, but the spices definitely kick in towards the finish. The spices are still not so noticeable as to be easily picked out; in fact after my first sip I can say it is spicy, but not what exactly it is that I am tasting. The up front sweetness accentuates flavors of sweet plums, cantaloupe, a touch of apple and some Anjou pear. The fruit / sweetness also seem to be accented by some of the spice components of this beer, though I would be hard pressed to say which ones. The spices add a sharpness / light astringency to the finish that mimics the effect of hop bitterness, but is certainly uniquely different. The beer has a certain heft to it that helps to carry the flavors, it is not heavy, nor is it light, but is about in line with a somewhat well attenuated Belgian beer of this strength; it has enough heft to it to keep it from being perfectly quaffable, but is still fairly drinkable. This was a fairly well carbonated brew as well, though not so much that I noticed it being excessive.

I am so unused to these spices being used in beer that I am having a hard time pulling out the specific spice flavors here, some of this is because the brewer used a restrained spicing here (at least at the age that this beer is now). A very tasty, interesting beer that I am quite enjoying a 750ml bottle of.