Victory V12

Medium brown orange color with a white head. Citrus aroma, caramel, and some yeast. Medium body with alot going on. Alcohol is very present and lends alot of heat to the beer. Want to age some to see what happens.

Bottled 8/29/08. Pours clear amber with a thick head that subsides quickly but still provides nice lacing. Bouquet is pear, apricot, raisin, citric hops, and spicy yeast. Flavor is pear, raisin, maple, sweet malt, citric hops, spicy yeast, and alcohol. Very warming. Doesn’t cover the alcohol very well but seems like it would be a great beer to age since it is so strong. Solid beer.

Pours a two finger cream head that fades slowly to a thin layer leaving traces of lace. Nice clear amber color. Raisin/caramel/alcohol nose. Good carbonation and medium bodied. Flavor is sweet mix of raisin and alcohol with a bit of hop, finishes sweet, not cloying. Smooth and one to definitely savor with the very high ABV. $8.75 for a caged 750ml bottle from Tully’s Beer & Wine Wells, Me.

The bottle pours rich honey color with sticky off white head, settling soon into a blotchy sheet. As it warms nice aroma of figs and caramel, alcohol and bread crust. Very evident burn in the taste, plus mild roasted bitterness and sweetness, like an orange danish; spicy like black pepper or cardamom. It’s a bit syrupy, with yeast very present, sparking a medium complexity that warms slowly.

Some candied sugar, some ripe plum aroma. Clear dark almond, thinner more temporary head than I expected. Though this was bottled in February, it’s still a bit hot and thin and features brown sugar, dried fig and raisin. Lacks the complexity so often found in what Belgians find their way out here. It’s a good beer with no flaws, though no peaks either.

Light fruity malt aroma. Cloudy darkish orange color with a small tan head. Sweet beginning with a mild cider and hop finish.

Tap at Barcade’s 4th Anniversary Party: Hazy deep copper pour with an off-white ring of head. The aroma is decent with fruity notes of apricot, orangey citruses and fig. The body has thick and sticky carbonation. Sweet flavor with evident alcohol. Sugary with a honeyish sweetness, sweet candied malts, syrupy citrus and a peppery alcoholic finish. Like many American examples of the style, it’s too sweet with surfaced alcohol flavors and little/no complexities/subtleties.

Copper color with some floaties going on. Aroma is the caramelizing of sugar as you heat it in a stovepan. Flavor is quite peppery and a mildly annoying hop presence. It all turns out all right though. Finishes dry. Okay beer.