Belzebuth

The Belzebuth, with its prancing devil and folkloric charm is my first attempt at a French beer. I’ve always envisaged some poor French sot wandering around Paris looking for a native brew to commiserate with amongst a legion of wine sommeliers. Though this is an extreme dramatization, I also imagine there are curious drinkers out there that want to know exactly what a French brewery is capable of. The Belzebuth is certainly a loud beer, clamoring with energy and veritably jabbing the drinker with its quick, sweet alcohol sips. Sobriety is its worst enemy, and it’ll quickly knock you down if you underestimate its punch. The head is fairly large, but average in its medium loose consistency. The body is also droll, both hazy and orange like so many other beers. Any doldrums are quickly dispelled with a quick sniff from the glass, drawing out a biting aroma of honey, champagne and spring water. While it is a stinging smell, it is only temporary. The actual aroma is quite flat and two dimensional despite the heavy cloud of alcohol lingering over the Belzebuth. This is even more apparent in the taste, where the alcohol grabs the tongue and threatens to rip it out of the mouth by its roots. If the drinker can gather his or her senses enough they might sense other flavors like white grape juice, acacia honey and a general syrup sweetness, but they’ll quickly be drawn back to the overwhelmingly zealous alcohol that’s threatening to knock them off their chairs… literally. I theorize that there is carbonation in this beer, but it is impossible to tell by taste alone, seeing as a few sips in and my tongue is absolutely blinded and mauled by the ethanol. If hard liquor is your idea of a good nightcap then this beer is for you. Otherwise if you’re traversing the beer world for diverse and subtle flavors you may find yourself in peril with the Belzebuth. Perhaps it is so loud because it is so outspoken, but for my tastes its vociferous booziness is simply too much. It is the hard rock singer when it could be the opera singer. Both can be loud, but only one is elegant.

Bottle; a dull orange-gold, w/ not much head. Smelled of alcohol and grain; very lager like. Tasted highly alcoholic; not hidden. Lacking flavor, mostly grain and bread; and any complexity. Didnt expect much; knew it was pretty gimmicky. Poor for the style.

Bottle consumed with Wieland and Taylor on 6/20/07. Spent 3 dollars on this shitty little bottle hoping it might be a little bit good. Damn, should have done my research. Luckily, after splitting this three ways I only had 3 or 4 ounces to drink. As others have said, this stuff is just overly boozy and lacks any sort of balance in aroma, flavor, and palate. To each his own.

The aroma has lots of alcohol, fruity esters, stale grains and a weird kind of skunkiness I associate with pale lagers in green bottles. The body is a dull golden color and holds a lasting, two finger thick, white head that is fluffy and creamy looking. Tastes very boozy, like cheap vodka. Has some rotten fruit flavors and stale bready notes. Pretty nasty tasting on the whole and way hotter than it needs to taste.

Strong smell of malts and alcohol. Apricot colored with lots of yeast sediment. Wow, lots of warming alcohol flavor that overpowers most everything else. There is malty flavor too, but the alcohol is what I mostly taste. Stingy on the tongue but I think more from alcohol than hops. Overall I can’t recommend, this one just doesn’t taste like a beer to me.

Aroma is strongly malty with a fierce alcohol nip. Pours a beautiful dark honey-gold that is clear and has a thick, persistent, fine-bubbled head. Flavor is pleasantly malty, but the alcohol bite is overwhelming, making it taste rather like brandy instead of beer. It goes down like liquid fire and has a strong alcohol aftertaste. It came in a small bottle (approx. 250 ml), and for good reason: It has the alcohol content of a barley wine. Two of these would have me making Virginia fence! If you like beer and brandy, you probably will appreciate this one. I enjoyed it, but I prefer a brew that tastes like beer rather than "hard" booze.

my 666th beer, I thought that this was appropriate. The taste is highly malty with Belgian candy sugar and caramel. no hops at all. This beer packs a strong punch. Here’s to you Belz!!!

8.4 oz, 13 % bottles, sold in $9 three packs.... Pours w/ very little head but is amazingly clear, begging to be drank. Nose of alcohol & fuel. Taste is pretty one dimensional.... alcoholic. But there are some malts and sugars to attempt at balancing, thou they fail. This beer, as a whole, is FAR from a failure though, as other’s ratings have hinted to. No doubt the alcohol is there, my bottle had a huge 13% on the neck, but the delivery isn’t bad. Sure there are slight singes of rubbing alcohol, but this isn’t a ladies beer.... ladies.