Victory V12

Hazy reddish color with a foamy head. A little bit fruity with noticable Belgian yeast overtones. Candy sugar, bananas, and molasses also come through. Alcohol is well hidden but creeps up on you about halfway through the beer. Seems pretty good for a Belgian knock off.

750 Ml Bottle-Bottled Jan 9, 06. Poured a beautiful cloudy amber color w/a moderate foamy off white head. Great basic beer aroma-full, hops, grass. Excellent flavor,somewhat fruity-hops, malt, grain- very basic but very good. Great balance-reminds you somewhat of a wheat. Long, long smooth finish. You really don’t taste the high alcohol, but it’s there-you feel it. Very easy drinking beer.

Bottle 5/03.....Pours out a hazy copper color with a well carbonated lively head. Aroma is fruity with a few notes of yeast and spice. Taste is nice and complex with notes of frit, alcohol and a very dry finish. Solid beer from a solid brewer

Pours a hazy reddish brown. Aromas of hops, caramel malts, kind of medicinal. Flavor is to strong for me, big alcohol taste, malty with a funky yeasty taste.

750 mL bottle. Ice tea hued body with a half inch of foamy beige bubbles. Nose is big sweet bBelgian with hints of yeast and floral notes. Taste-very sharp CO2, brown sugar, bready, green raisin, amber candi sugar, alcohol, and fruity. Reminds me very much of Uni’s Terrible. Spot on for the style.

2003. Poured a clear orange color with a thin off-white head. Sweet candy aroma. Malty with alcohol notes. Sweet malty flavor with light fruit. Moslty sweet finish. Light bitterness on the finish.

March 05 bottle. Pours out giant heads, not sure if it is beginning to get infected or if this is just the way the beer is supposed to pour. Body is lively with carbonation, almost like drinking a Unibroue beer. Smell is fruity and yeasty with it tasting very much the same. The 12% is no where to be found, it drinks like a 4% abv beer. The 12% is noticable once you slam it down and feel the buzz. A good beer, probably not something I would go out of my way to find, but if it was there I would get it. A pretty strong offering from Victory.

March ’05 Bottle: Holy honkin’ head, this one was a difficult pour. Only got 3 ounces or so into each of my and bfeld’s glasses before the head hit the brim on both. Repeated the process a few more times and had to leave 10oz or so in the bottle while we worked on the glasses. Aroma was nice, standard spicey and orange type aromas with some alcohol detectable. Flavor was much of the same with candy sugar and some hops also coming forth. The carbonation was high (must be if you can get that much head in 12%ABV) and may have overstimulated the taste buds. Each sip finished with a rather bitter lingering aftertaste and the overall flavor was a bit rough for the style. If you are holding one of these right now, put it away and age it for a good year or so. This one definitely needs to mellow a bit before I can get excited about it. Re-rate on Jan 06 bottle in Mar 06: Nothing changed except the head, which was much more tame. Missed color on the first sampling, this one was amber orange with some brownish colors. Re-rate, Aug 09: Strong sweet light fruits in the fore, peaches, apples, etc... Strong bread notes, strong yeast, some phenolic character with clovey elements. Bitterness all from the yeast. Alcohol noticeable.