Profiled by Ken Carman for professorgoodales.net
Tons of off white pillow-y foam. It was hard to fill a glass. There’s little doubt there’s brettanomyces. Despite all the dark malt that is dominant. Obsidian black and head goes on forever.
Nose is a little malt sweet and not much else. How can you have all they claim is in this beer and have damn near no nose?
A bit sour/sweet: less sour than sweet. Malt heavy but not all that distinguishable. As it warms bitter pops out, but it’s just bitter.
Mouthfeel heavy malt. This is denser than the heaviest Porter, but not quite a Scotch Heavy. No hops sensed except a slight bitter. If you want dark malt with close to no hops, no real dark malts, as in Black Patent… no hops… light carbonation in body but tons in head: this is for you.
Ommegang is a great brewery: yes, but for all the hype this is an unimpressive beer. Buy Ommegang’s namesake (Ommegang) instead if this is what you want in a beer: it’s better. More complex malt-wise. More interesting.
How can you make a beer so unimpressive, with so much malt and top it off with tons of hype?
Here: Ommegang succeeded.