Piece Festivus

Brewed by Piece Brewery & Pizzeria
Style: Belgian Ale
Chicago, Illinois USA

Serve in Trappist glass, Tulip, Tumbler

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On tap. Served in a tulip glass. Mild aromas of prunes, ginger and cocoa. The taste follows with with dark fruits and hints of spicy smoke. Pretty good.

Strong aroma of cloves and nutmeg. Yeasty tartness and caramel/toffee malt with a decent shot of citrus hopping to bitter it up. I liked this one, despite having the worst service of my life in any establishment in history the last time I was here!

Deep opaque, purple with a dark, slightly fluffy tan head. The aroma is malty sweet and moderately spicy. Caramel, chocolate, clove, grains of paradise, raisin, ginger and some ripe apple esters. The hops come out much more as the beer warms. The body is full and smooth with soft carbonation, one of the better mouthfeels, in my opinion. The sweet malt is fairly dominate, yet the warm alcohol and spice heat up the end, meshing with the hops to create a fairly bitter ending. Some Belgian-esque character from the yeast and malt with fairly Americanized liberal spicing. A pretty tasty and drinkable holiday beer. Something I would only drink one of per session, but not terrible.

Light brown and tan headed with a yeasty aroma backed by earthy & herbal hop scents. The flavor is sweet caramel with a peppery spiciness and is fairly bitter from the hops, leaving a lingering bitter finish. An odd kind of a Beligian Ale, but a decent enough brew.

<font size=-4><a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/events-detail.asp?eve & Winter Beer Tasting at Delilah’s, Chicago, IL 12/10/2005<font size=-1>

Ahh...a spiced holiday ale! Very interesting and possessing a little more complexity of flavors than Piece's other beers. Surprising is the level of hoppiness, but the spices (pepper, cloves) are to be expected. Give Piece some credit that you can actually taste some spice in this - many brewers are too stingy with such ingredients. Tad chewy.

Draught [2003 version]: dark red amber, wonderfully creamy off white, tight-bubbled foam. A bright, yeasty effervescence full of green apples, grain and cloves. The strong yeast in the aroma transforms into a large spiciness on the tongue - fresh cracked pepper, more cloves. . . a tasty grainy malt comes into play at the end, adding something special to an interesting brew. . . there are also some interesting fruits in the finish: red apples, some sort of citrus, maybe an apricot, and something bitter - honey? Also had a wonderful tingly mouth-feel and though it was served close to freezing, warmed into a charming brew.

Nicely done. A bit flat- not enough yeast? I don’t know. A little more hops than most Belgians.