Belzebuth

bottle said best by oct.02 and 15% abv. poured in my snifter a golden amber with off white head with lots of floaties. aroma alcohol,malts,a nice sweetness like honey, some citrus, orange , lemon, licorice. flavor surprisingly the alcohol was not the 1st thing that comes out, syrupy fruity honey mixtureand as it lingers in your mouth the alcohol comes out. this is a beer you could drink instead of cognac for a after dinner drink I didn’t think the french had it in them to make such a beer that would stand up and fight for you attention

Sampled at Hall’s Beer Tavern in Paris, France. Golden. Pleasantly aromatic with notes of sea plants, herbs and lemon. It’s a big one, that’s for sure. Notes of melon, pear, lemon, pineapple and cooked corn. Not offensive in any way. It may have been a mistake to sample this beer after a Thomas Hardy’s 1999. I wouldn’t have this again. There are just so many better French beers.

Nice amber color, little carbonation, and the thin head collapsed almost immediatedly. The aroma and taste are both sweet and malty, but not offensively so. It’s a thick, syrupy drink that ends on a sour note. But that’s not so bad. And at 13% abv, the alcohol presence was minimal. Tasty drink.

Poured a bit lighter than I anticipated. The head lingered for only a moment before leaving a fine white lace. Sweet, and slightly oily in the mouth with a slight alcohol and pepper burn. I tasted a little fruit, bananas maybe.....or plums. A little more burn on the end, but VERY tasty. Two was enough for me at one sitting.

13% version. 250ml bottle. Freshness date: 28.3.05 Amber/orange with red highlights and lightly effervescent. The head is white, diminished almost immediately and left a light sticky lace. Aroma is malty with fruity esters. Taste is sweet and fruity with a slight peppery finish (some hops). Lingering peppery aftertaste. Mouthfeel is full bodied, creamy, lively and effervescent. An experience, and an unusual style. Easy to drink, but one was enough... for a while.

A frightening ale, this, that used to be available briefly, in MN, and which I tried in the days before I sat down to write about every beer. My strongest, most succint impression then was "it tastes like drugs" and, though this bottle says 13% and my previous samplings were 15%, those are still the best 4 words to use. This review comes from a freshly delivered bottle: Appearance: a clear pale reddish hue, with a small, swiftly settling white head. Aroma: booming fruit, huge, even suffocating alcohol. Wickedly sweet, damned powerful. Just drinking it in the nose could put you into drunkenness! Fierce on the palate, BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!---unrelentingly hot and potentially damaging! I feel as if malt is providing too little flavor, hops are not helping either, and no parts of this beer are resisting the dominance of the occupying alcoholic forces. Gets to work in the brain quickly, like a French malt likka. Intensely burning and buzzing, incredibly alcoholic and flavorful, but--OW!OW!OW!!!...too much so. Too, too much so. Good for a novelty perhaps, but nothing you’d reach for to quench your thirst or get you relaxing.

25 cL bottle, snifter, 28.07.05. Toasted bread, cereal, molasses malt (H); herb and ?orange? hops (M); alcohol, banana, clove, chardonnay, soy sauce, honey, pepper aromas. Pours as thick as motor oil, deep amber-gold body with a thin, creamy, diminishing white head. Molasses, soy aromas do not blend well. Heavily sweet, moderately acidic flavor becomes a moderately sweet, lightly acidic, moderately bitter finish. Heavy body, oily/creamy texture, average carbonation, slight alcohol burn. The bottom line is: big and malty, but there’s no ’wow’ factor here.

13 % version. Clear amber, smallish lasting white head. Extremely sweet, alcoholic corn syrup/molasses nose, expressive but rather too much. On the tongue, sweet and brown sugar-ish, fairly one-note, slightly thickish body, alcohol obvious and present especiall late in the mouthfeel. I mean, I guess if you want to get drunk fast....