Lagunitas B3K

Formerly brewed at Lagunitas Brewing Company
Style: American Strong Ale
Petaluma, California USA

Serve in Snifter, Trappist glass

Aroma of raisins, plums, cinammon and gingerbread. Appears a ruby brown color with little to no head. Flavor starts sweet and malty, with notes of toffee and molasses. Flavor ends with a big bitter green hoppy finish. Palate is a bit light for a beer of this magnitude, but the alcohol is hidden pretty well. Overall, this a good brew, and it is equal or better than the sum of its parts.

22oz bottle obtained a while back via trade I believe with DarkElf - Thanks! - Pours ruby with a nice creamy tan head that stays pretty well and laces some on the trappist glass that I consumed it in. Aroma is caramel, orange, pineapple, toffee, and a little spice. Flavor begins sweet with some caramel up front and just a touch of toffee, then there is a lot of fruit there. Orange, grapefruit, and even a little pineapple, then some raisin flavor at the end blended with a little pine. Interesting indeed... Palate is medium bodied for a beer this big. Rather soft mouthfeel with a fair amount of carbonation. Easy to drink and no sign of the 11.3% alcohol.. Unique and complex.. I liked this one!

Orange ruby. Cream-colored head settles into a jagged ring. Fruity, but dull, papaya puree and mango aromas. Subtle sherry/oxidation. Fuzzy carbonation. Opens with layers of slickly fruity esters and juicy hops. Lush malt frame delivers sweet notes of bread which retain their softness and continually strengthen the body. Well balanced, but a tad mushy. Hop character reveals a hint of citric acidity, which, along with the faint oxidation, weakens the body. And to worsen things, the undefined esters are amplified by the fuzzy arrangement of flavors. Delicate brush of piney bitterness tightens its clinch for a brief moment, only to be outmatched by the body’s limpness and more flabby fruitiness. Finishes overly tacky and fruity, with a slick base of melon seeds balanced by a soft, yet stable, nutty-malt sweetness. Has an okay malt character, but the overt fruitiness ruins much of the experience. Thanks, beerguy101.

Large, light brown head, rocky with a fair retention and bubbly laceing. A hazy amber colored brew. Nose is of caramel, toffee and a light spiceyness. Med/full body, lightly oily. Big malt flavors are medium sweet, caramelly, chocolatey with hints of raisins and dates. Pine and citrus notes are buried underneath all the malt. Finish is lightly sweet and spicey with some butterscotch showing up as well as a fair amount of alcohol. Thanks for the bottle Cliff !

This was a nice choice for beer #800, thanks a lot for the beer Mitch! This puppy pours a deep copper color with a fairly active fluffy tanned head with a nice degree of lacing if shaken, not stirred. Good lacing around the side of the glass. Aroma is pleasant with citrusy hops, syrupy resins, wood, and vanilla with no alcohol presence in the nose. The flavor is medium to full bodied with a nicely developing malt flavor mixed with a whopping hoppy body. Not a dry hoppiness either, it definitely does not interrupt the malt. Grapefruity, caramel body with hints of vanilla and once again...NO alcohol presence whatsoever...these guys are houdini when it comes to hiding alcohol! Hardly any dryness whatsoever, sweet sweet sweet and a woody aged presence...frickin great!

Grainy, husky malts, orange blossom, resinous hops, some creamed corn, vegetal notes in the aroma. Clear amber body is topped by a decent, fine bubbled, off white head that recedes rapidly to a lasting cover with some sudsy lacing. Fairly bitter, biscuity flavour with fair to moderate dark malts character. Medium light body with soft but lively carbonation. Sampled at the Falling Rock at GABF 2005.

Dark brwn and red, dense bubble formation. Malty rich aroma, like a dark barleywine, and of course lots of hop character, but I think one could make the argument that this is a bit too formulaic, a bit crude, or at least unoriginal. Normal palate for what this is. Tea notes in the flavor, with caramel. There is nowhere near the sense that this is 11.3% abv. It tastes like 5.5%. Decent but unexciting.

UPDATED: MAR 2, 2007 2005 bottle. Have had a few of these on a number of different occasions. Pours a amber-beige to dusky brown color, with an off-white to beige colored head, pretty well retained, though rather small, little lacing. Clear and filtered (surprise!). Aroma of brown sugar, wet, green hops, raisins, prunes, cinnamon and caramel. Flavor is your basic sweet caramelly malt, raisins, brown sugar and some very astringent dryness, perhaps from some lightly toasted/roasted malt. Hint of dry berry-like fruitiness, quite sugary though with a medium-full body overall, typical force-carbonated texture. The only thing I enjoyed was the very well hidden alchool. Almost don’t believe it’s 11.3% Just pretty boring, overall though. Not poorly made or anything. Reminds me of an amped up Nuevo Noir minus the Belgian yeast and spices. Ok so that dosent really say much. But it’s just boring caramel/brown sugar, nuts and dates. Lots more hops though, than Nuevo noir, obviously. But the base malt character is bland, IMHO.