Raftman
(Edit: let this one warm up a bit before smelling or drinking). My girlfriend knows I like trying new beers and thought she had never seen me drinking this one before. She has a good memory; I've never thought to buy the Raftman. Average ABV beers rarely do it for me when compared to 7 or 8% and up. Poured from a 750ml into my new Maudite chalice. Or would that be calisse? This beer has a pretty unique colour to it, I have no idea what to call it. Maybe pastel amber. It's kind of brown/orange/amber. Opaque and a bit thin in texture. Nice colour but a less than impressive head, which fades fairly quickly to a thin blanket of foam and then to nothing at all. No lacing. This actually smells pretty similar to a decent bottle of 12 year old single malt. If I had done a blind smell test, I might have guessed this was whiskey and not beer. Sweet, astringent malt, Unibroue yeast, a bit of hops and some Belgian spices. Right up front there's a smokiness imparted by the whiskey malt followed up by some tingly, slightly bitter hops. Some Belgian-style spices in the background. It kind of reminds me of RJ's d'Achouffe Brun with some water poured in it. Not as sweet as the smell suggests. I'd like to taste even more malt here. I'm pretty into the subtle smokiness of this beer, but it's a little weak flavoured for my liking. I know that Unibroue is well-known for their overcarbonation and while I usually enjoy high carbonation more than most, this is the first of the Unibroues I'm going to say is overcarbonated. If I had to list the most prominent feature of this beer, it would be the carbonation; it just dominates everything. Also, the feel is definitely too thin here; inappropriately light-bodied. This is an alright beer. Drinkable but not one I would actively seek out. The smell, taste and feel are all too light for me. I'm giving it an extra 0.5 because the light smokiness is kind of cool. It's the only other Unibroue besides Ephemere I've had which weighs in at 5.5%. I guess I'm just a strong beer kind of guy.