Heavy Seas Holy Sheet

Brewed by Heavy Seas Brewing Company
Style: Abbey Dubbel
Baltimore, Maryland USA

Serve in Trappist glass

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Pours with a bit more head than you think. A wonderfully ruby/black color. Attack of caramel and dark berries, which mellows into a more caramel and slighty bitter finish. Wonderful beer, really really nice and highly recommended if you can find it.

Clipper city brewing, heavy seas, Holy Sheet uber abbey ale. Yep, that’s a mouthful, and so is this beer. Coming from just outside of Baltimore, Clipper City has made some serious headway in the world of craft beer. Their Loose Cannon has become one of the most popular craft beers in our store, and their seasonal are always worth grabbing. This brew tonight is their limited Holy Sheet "uber abbey ale". At about 9% abv, its definitely going to be uber something. It pours out a dark amber color, with medium head. The foam is unusually tiny bubbles, but fades quickly. At nine percent alcohol, I’m not surprised by how quickly the foam disappears. The Holy Sheet smells like a malt bomb, and I’m getting excited! My first sip reveals tons of complexity, malty goodness, and a little bit of booziness. I’m getting flavors of toffee and caramel, with plenty of sweet malty flavors like vanilla and honey. The Holy Sheet reminds me of a blend of two of my favorite beers, the Chimay Grande Reserve and Delirium Nocturnum. Medium to full bodied, a bit on the boozy side, with just the right amount of malty sweetness. I’m a big fan of the Holy Sheet, I recommend it highly.

12 oz bottle. Pour to a beautiful, bright, deep ruby color, with a thick, creamy, off white head, and a moderate carbonation. The nose on this beer is excellent, with lots of good sweet malty aroma, paired with plummy esters, and some spicy/earthy yeast. The palate is slighly slick on the tongue, with really good flavors of caramel, sweet malt, candi sugar, esters of plum and apple, and some funky/spicy yeast flavor. This beer finishes with good malt and fruity flavor up front, then ends with a funky/earth yeast flavor that lingers. Very well done domestic example of an abbey double. Nice beer to sip and relax with, and a good beer to match with hearty fare, or deserts. I really enjoyed this one. Another good effort from Clipper City.

Pours a nice clear dark mahogany with a fine-bubbled pale tan head. Aroma is strong and fruity with yeasty and malty undertones and a whisper of butterscotch. Flavor is fruity and a bit sweet with malty and woody undertones. Texture is rough, edgy and tingly, leaving a pleasing finish.

22oz bomber. Pours a deep ruby brown with amber highlights and a medium thin light tan head. Deep, complex malty aroma - subtle tart fruit, raisins, toffee, chocolate, cherry, and subtle smoke. The taste is bready and fruity with rich toffee malt, subtle acidic fruit (almost like raspberry), and notes of chocolate. Slight grainy chocolate malty with subtle banana near mid-palate. Finish is malty with cakey malts and soft earthy spicy bitterness. The mouthfeel is tingly and nicely carbonated with a medium-full body and a hint of astringency. Overall, a very nice beer - complex, malty, balanced, rich. Much better than expected.

I’m really not sure why the lack of love for this one. I found it to be well done and very authentic Belgian in nature, especially for a regional brewery on the East Coast... Appears a semi-transparent mahogany hue of garnett amber with a small, light tan head that slowly fades into a spiraled cap and mild collar. Scattered streaks of lacing are left around the glass. Smell is of doughy banana nut bread with caramel, melanoiden malt, raisins, brown sugar...reminds me a bit of Chimay Red. Taste is of the mentioned aromas with complex, yeasty dough, rich caramalized malt(Special B?), and a touch of cocoa. The yeast is the real "bread winner" of this beer making it complex and delicious. Mouthfeel is medium bodied, sweet up front, bready, with raisin sweetness sliding along the tongue and into a lip smacking finish. Well done brew. I hope they decide to keep it in the lineup for a long time b/c I would put it up there with both Chimay Red, as well as New Belgian Abbey.

Purchased from "Jungle Jim’s International Market" in Fairfield, Ohio - This is a fine, full bodied abbey ale with malty sweetness and fruitiness. I like it!

Pours a three finger cream head that fades slowly, leaving some lace. Clear amber color. Medium carbonation and medium bodied. Raisin nose. Flavor is sweet, raisiny, not cloying good balance, higher ABV is hidden. $2.25 for a 12oz bottle from Colonial Spirits Acton, Ma.

Aroma of raisin, malt, kind of wine-like. Dark, transparent, with no head. Strong mouth feel with an understated hop bitterness. Caramel, apple, some chocolate hints are there. Very complex, interesting beer.

Bottle - from sampler pack. Dark copper color - somewhat cloudy. Strong malty aroma. Very good - quite strong - malty taste - very warming.