Belzebuth
This is the last of the 15 percenters I bought a few years ago. I don't remember this from last time, but this particular sample pours with the oddest coloured foam I've ever seen, sort of a neon urine colour. Seriously! Huge, huge bubbles fight their way to the surface like sperm after the egg. Okay, perhaps that's not the most appetizing description, but that's what I thought of. The bubbles eventually settle down to a near-champagne like mousse. You can see that they are having a time of it getting through the thick malt. The colour is a golden yellow; urine-like, to be truthfull. There's some particulate suspended in the mix, but it's hard to pick out unless you look closely. The nose somewhat muted, with perhaps essence of gasoline and alcohol being the two most evident characteristics. The flavour is mostly about the alcohol, for this beer tastes closer to distilled alcohol than any other beer I've had. There's certainly a sweet start, which gives way to a peppery middle and is completed by that alcohol burn that I crave in the bleak midwinter ... like now. There's a bone-numbingly dry and herbal aspect to the finish that makes Belzebuth taste reminiscently of a grappa. Interesting beer, but I think there are much better high-alcohol beers out there.