Holy Mackerel Special Golden Ale

Brewed by Florida Beer Company
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Melbourne, Florida USA

Bottled at Akkurat, Stockholm. Clear amber, small head. Rich marzipan-like yeast character. Sweet and fruity, near full bodied with rounded mouthfeel, Marzipan and yeast dominates completely. Simple and heavy, but well organized.

Thanks to tronraner for leaving this behind after a recent tasting. Pours a fairly clear golden body that throws up a minimal white head. Very nice lace however. Malt, Belgian yeast, citrus all well blended in the aroma. Sweet, light bodied with some astringency in the finish. Needs more complexity and bit less sweetness.

12oz bottle. Weak film of a head forming over a cloudy orange body but dying very fast. Intensely sweet aroma of straightforward banana and clove, basically a standard tripel nose, only sweeter than it should be. Cloying up front with weak carbontion but still a heavy weight on the tongue. Sticky, thick, syrupy sweet candy sugar dominates this beer. I just really don’t have much of a taste these days for strong goldens or tripels.

Pours gold, with a small, white head. Aroma is oranges, sugar, and alcohol. Flavor is oranges, sugar, honey, and a bit of hops. Very sweet. Aging would probably help this one.

12 oz bottle via homebrew Mys Swap 1.0 (thanks REDLIGHT!). Beer pours a semi hazy amber with a small beige head. Nose is candy and fruity esters. Taste starts with some sweet vanilla and ends with s semi-dry somewhat sweet vanilla ice-cream....and in the middle there was some fresh bread, some strawberry, and some mellow herbal almost minty hoppiness. There is actually quite a lot going on here, and it works well together. Body is medium and carbonation is high, as to be expected for the style. This is a world class beer...style be damned as i do not care for this style, but nonetheless, this is a VERY GOOD beer!

I tried this first as a home brew and now as a micro. I liked it both times. Orange color w/off-white head. No lace. Aroma is nice; Sweet... orange... marsh mellow and something else I can’t quite pick out...bubblegum?? I can taste the Belgian ale influence. Just enough bitter/astringency to keep the sweetness in check. Very tasty!

Rerate of 2008 vintage in 2009. Pours golden orange with white head. Nose is honey, apple, citrus, sugar, and some booze and yeast. Yeast comes out in the flavor that has lots of syrupy sweetness. Apple, caramel, and sugary syrupy tang emerge. Very sugary flavor and a light mouthfeel come out in this beer that did not age as well as I thought it would.

Bottle. Pour is a clear, golden amber with a nice two-finger head. Aromas are not good. Rotting vegetables and spices. (It has gotten a little better as it has breathed, but it was awful at first. My rating stands halfway between my two impressions... first and later.) Flavor is insanely sweet and honey like... almost like a mead. I can see where this is trying to go, but it won’t be taking me there... the rest is bound for the drain.