Cambridge Benevolence

Brewed by Cambridge Brewing Company
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Cambridge, Massachusetts USA

Serve in Trappist glass, Tulip, Tumbler

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09.30.05 GABF Murky brown. Queer nose is like a barleywine crossed with an oude brune. Molasses, fresh caramel, honey, peanuts, prune juice, old cask. Fascinating sniffer. Smoky notes dance throughout. Tastes like sugar, wood, cherries, white sour balls, pineapple, bubblegum. Damn this stuff is wild and delicious. Palate is more like a sour than a strong ale as it’s unctuous but medium in heft. Really could be a dangerous quaffer.

Barley heavy aroma with woody-nutty aroma. Deep brown, almost black in color. Very sweet with sour edges and a nutty-woody finish. A bit like a wild barleywine.

Avery Sour Ale Fest. Strongest brew at the whole fest. However no alcohol apparent. Sweet, but not overly sweet. Surprisingly not that full-bodied. The barrel adds some cool character to the brew. Some woodiness and nice tart flavors. One of my favorites of the fest.

On tap at Avery Sour Fest poured a hazy dark brown with a lingering ring of tan foam. Aromas of leather, horseblanket, cocoa and light fruittiness. Palate was light bodied and crisp with a dry lightly tart finish. Flavors of leather, cocoa, fruittiness, barnyard and light spice with a smooth dry lightly tart lingering funky finish.

GABF 2009. Pours hazy brown with an average, fizzy off-white head, somewhat diminishing with fair lacing. Aroma is heavy malt (cookie, caramel, toffee), light hop (herbs, grass), heavy yeast (dough, earth) with notes of cherry, wine, and brown sugar. Medium bodied, sticky texture, average carbonation, and a bitter finish. Long duration, moderate sweetness, acidity, and bitterness.

On tap at GABF 2009. Another great and really interesting beer from Cambridge. Pours a cloudy dark reddish-amber color with a small off-white head. Aroma is dark fruits, brown sugar, spices, oak, and orange peel. Flavor is sweet malt, spices, cherries, dates, orange, honey, candi sugar, red wine, and a little alcohol. Also a little oaky tartness to it that really adds to the complexity. Palate is medium-full with soft carbonation and very well-hidden ABV. This is a well-done beer overall.

(Draught) Pours a murky dark reddish brown body with a small beige head. Aroma of raisins, dates, vinous, honey, and cherry. Flavor of raisins, dates, cherries, candi sugar, light funkiness, vinous, caramel, light honey, and some vanilla. Nice complexity in this high abv Belgian Strong.

GABF 2009: Settles in the glass in a dark haze with an off-white topping. The nose is alive with bourbon, toffee, vanilla, wood, and chocolate. Moderately acidic mouthfeel brings notes of bourbon, chocolate, toffee, and sour wood notes. By far my favorite offering from this brewery at the GABF.

GABF2009 - holy hell! - this beer is huge in more ways than one - loads of sour cherry, fruit skin tannins, and light earthy funk in the nose, with a light touch of oak and acidity - date, raisin, sour cherry and other dark, heavy fruits in the flavor - warming, but not overpowering alcohol - some earthy wildflower honey qualities through the middle - red wine and oak characteristics cut the sweetness - this is some serious stuff.

A nice reddish amber ale with a thin creamy moka head. A wonderfully pleasant dark fruits in aroma, molasses, treacle and maderized porto, enticing and intense. In mouth, an interesting mix of dark candy cane extract, sour molasses, and raisins. Challenging in a good way. Rich and warming. On tap at brewpub, July 1, 2009

UPDATED: JUL 7, 2009 My Bottom Line:
This grandiose achievement in brewing harmoniously marries bourbon, sour cherries, medjool dates and wild yeast flavors into a luxurious body worthy of meditation. This ambitious project has bloomed into a most marvelous osmosis of Flemish Sour, Fruit Beer and Barley Wine.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A slice of foam surfs the mahogany-tinged dark brown.
-Alcohol seems to vary a lot from batch to batch; from 8.6% to over 12%!
-Vinous fruitiness, tartness and wooden dryness meld beautifully into the vanilla sweetness.
-Alcohol is remarkably well hidden for a 12% brew.
-The soft tiny bubbles are effervescent, making this a very classy, easygoing sipper despite all the present flavors.
-Complexity here is endless, yet all flavors seem to coexist on the same plane. Very impressive!

On tap at the brewpub.