Heavy Seas brewing company's Holy Sheet.

This is a brewing company with a cute little gimmick/theme going on, much like Middle Ages Brewing Company. This company does pirate themed drinks. Their winter beer was pretty good, so I tried one of their bigger ones. In this case, Holy Sheet. They refer to it as an 'Uber Abbey style ale'. Its a piratey twist on a typical belgian abbey style ale. Strong abbey ale with interesting spiciness.

My first whiff of it when I opened it up surprised me. It has no fruit in it, yet it had an incredibly fruity nose to it. Over the course of the next minute or two it started developing a bit of a light colored foam head to it, which smelled almost nutty and tasted somewhat yeasty. That quickly subsided though, and I was able to get to the beer itself.

The fruitiness in the nose was replaced a bit by spiciness in both the scent and the flavor once the foam had subsided. There's still a hint of fruit and yeast, but most of what you taste and smell after that is the spice. They use a good balance of spices that aren't strong enough to overpower anything, but give you a nice tingle on your tongue. This, much like the Double Wench that I just reviewed, is a very strong beer in terms of alcohol content. 9%. This puts it within the range of some wines. I think that's why I like this one and the Double Wench so much, they're almost like a good quality wine, but in beer form.

And really, that's what makes beer interesting enough for me to keep coming back to it. It can come in such a wide variety that it starts to overlap with other kinds of drinks. That's also why I brew the meads that I brew. Most of the meads you find on store shelves is sticky-sweet crap. I try to make something different, something that's worth at least trying. And something that some people will like enough to keep coming back for more.

Middle Ages Brewing Company's Double Wench ale

I've had a few beers by Middle Ages Brewing Company, and so far I've liked them all. They make one called Wailing Wench, that's a very strong full-bodied ale with 8% alcohol.

When it was well received, they decided to up the ante and make an even stronger version, Double Wench. This one is even stronger and has 12% alcohol.

The smell of this one was... interesting. It didn't have the strength of the Mendocino Imperial Stout I had last night, but it still had a strong kick to it. It wasn't a strong scent,... just a pungent one. I'm not entirely sure what the scent is. Probably some variant of hops or some other bittering bud that I'm not familiar with. The taste was fairly similar. Strong for an ale, with an interesting pungent taste to it. No particularly strong aftertastes, whatever hops they used just added flavor rather than bitterness.

Just by drinking it you'd never guess that it has a higher than normal alcohol content. This beer is as strong as some of the strongest wines I've had, and yet it goes down as easily as a 4 or 5 percent beer.

I think this is a beer that you'll be able to tell if you'll like it or not by the first sip. I can honestly say I've never had an ale like it. This is definitely a 'try it at least once' kind of beer. If you don't like it, that'll be apparent right off the bat. Unfortunately since it comes in the larger bottles, it isn't cheap to try. So try it with a group of people who like strong and interesting beers, someone's bound to finish the bottle.

And make sure that someone has a designated driver. Because... well... it has 12% alcohol content by volume, and it doesn't taste like it.

Mendocino Imperial Stout

To start with, the smell just about knocked me on my rear end. It had one of the strongest, darkest smells I've ever encountered in a beer. For a moment I thought they'd added blackstrap molasses to the mix.

The taste, on the other hand, was fairly standard fare for an imperial stout. The aftertaste is very hoppy, rather than the non-descript bitterness that many of the darker stouts have. I suspect they achieved that one by just using one kind of hops and not trying too hard to add lots of flavors to it, like a lot of small brewers try to do. Some with more success than others.

It is an interesting mix of mild and strong, definitely worth buying again.

Sam Adams Chocolate Bock

I was a bit surprised by this one. Normally when you think of a dark, strong chocolate beer you think of a stout. And I'm a big fan of chocolate stouts. But I figured I'd give this one a try.

And it is just about what I expected, actually. When I opened the bottle I got the scent of a nice, dark, strong beer with chocolate undertones. It has the deep, dark flavor and chocolate aroma of a chocolate stout, but none of the typical stout flavor. It was very well crafted and very smooth, went down nicely, much like a good chocolate stout. It just had a flavor and aroma of bock instead of stout. Do I prefer it to a good chocolate stout? Well, no. But I like it for the same reasons that I like a good chocolate stout, and it's different enough to be worth at least trying, if not buying every now and then. The finish wasn't as 'velvety' as the label said, but it was still pretty damn good. I can't imagine it will be a staple for me, but its definitely worth trying and probably worth buying again.

Sam Adams Holiday Porter

This one's very hard to describe. Its strong. Its got presence and character. Its got body. Its got flavor. And yet I'm finding it hard to describe.

I think it's because this beer is just a well-crafted blend of so many things that it can't be described with just one. It is a fairly dark, strong, bitter beer. And this is me saying that it's bitter. So take that at face value. It has a hint of chocolate malt, but not enough to taste like a chocolate stout. Its got a hint of a few other malts that I can't place offhand, but each adds its own flavor. There's even a hint of spiciness to it, which I'm not sure if its from the malt or actual spices because there's no one strong flavor coming through. But it was enough to clear out my sinuses.

Overall I'd say that this one's a good, strong beer to drink when it's cold out. Its got oomph, its got flavor, its a cold beer that'll warm you up. I just can't describe that oomph or flavor.

Belhaven Brewery's Scottish Stout

This one had a very dark, bitter scent when I opened the bottle, I was expecting it to hit me like a ton of bricks. But when I took a sip, it didn't hit me at all. It glided down smoothly. The scent is that of a very dark, chocolaty stout. But the taste is much more subtle. Its not nearly as bitter as it smells. Much more mellow.

For those who are looking for something with a lot of bite, this isn't it. For those who want something that's dark and strong, but more subtle and mellow, this is your bottle of beer.

Samuel Smith's Organic Strawberry Ale

I was expecting an ale with a hint of fruit, like Sea Dog's Blueberry Wheat (which I highly recommend, BTW), but this was something else entirely. Half regular ale, half fruity desert beer. It was very strange at first, took some getting used to.

I think they were trying to find a middle ground, to appeal to people who like dessert beers and people who like regular beers. And in that, they totally failed. It is far too sweet and tart and fruity for people who like regular beers, but not sweet enough for people who like dessert beers.

It is, however, very drinkable. You can sip, or you can just down the thing. Goes down easily. Tastes good, once you get used to the halfway nature of it. And maybe with the word 'organic' in the title, they were trying to go more for the hippie crowd than the beer drinking crowd.

Not one I'd buy again any time soon, but not bad.

Middle Ages Brewing Company's 'Wizard's Winter Ale'

Since I liked the last one of theirs I tried so much, I decided to try a couple more. I had a red beer by them, fairly good but nothing worth writing up really. Like the Retro Red I reviewed a while back, it was good but a bit bland. Now, on this cold night, I'm trying their winter ale.

Immediately when I opened the bottle, the scent of it hit me. It smelled more like the darker beers that I've been drinking lately, not like the lighter ales that I'm used to. Which is good, because a winter brew should have the oomph of a darker beer. Although I have to admit, it was a bit surprising. :)

The taste follows suit. It has a hint of bitterness, but not too strong. Dark flavor, almost more like a stout than an ale. If you were expecting something light and crisp, this is not it. If you were expecting something with a bit more heft to it for the cold winter months, this IS it.

I think this would go well with a meaty meal, like their Dragonslayer did. Wouldn't go so well with anything sweet though, anything sweet would bring out the bitterness in this too much.

Middle Ages Brewing Company's Dragonslayer Imperial Stout

Ho
ly
carp.

First off, this came in a fairly big bottle. 1 pint 6 ounces. Just a little bit smaller than a wine bottle. In addition, it has a 9.5% alcohol content. Fairly strong. Originally I bought it to share with people around christmastime. Due to the hustle and bustle of everything happening then, plus the fact that I was so sick I could barely think straight (although I could still play a mean game of Halo), it never ended up getting shared. So I opened it tonight.

I decided to treat myself, since I hadn't done so in a long time, I actually had a nice beer with dinner.

First off, I tried the beer while dinner was cooking. It had a light brown head, and a dark color. As far as taste goes, it seemed neither sweet nor bitter at first. But as I drank more, I discovered that it is both sweet and bitter, just perfectly balanced between the two. If you drink it by itself for a bit, one side or the other will come out more depending on your palate. If you drink it after eating something sweet, it will taste bitter. If you drink it after eating something not sweet, it will taste sweet.

As far as the scent goes, it actually had a faintly fruity smell. Not sure why, as there seems to be no fruit whatsoever in it.

The dinner I had it with was a dinner somewhat of my own invention. I had some leftover vegetables and sauce from some mongolian lamb last week that never got finished off. The lamb was gone, but the veggies and sauce remained. So with the lamb burgers I cooked tonight, I added the veggies and sauce on top. It turned out delicious. And it went well with the beer, since it was neither sweet nor bitter.

At the moment, I am more than just a bit full. I finished the bottle myself, as well as all three lamb burgers that I had ready to cook. I think my alcohol tolerance has dropped a bit since college the first time around, because I do feel the effects of the alcohol somewhat. And since there was a time when a full bottle of port would barely get me past tipsy, that's saying something. :)

But at the moment, I would say that both the beer and the mongolian lamb burgers were a success. And together they were even greater. This was a triumph. I'm making a note here: huge success.