Church On A Hill
Cigar City Brewing

750 mL bottle poured into a CBS snifter. No bottle date, which is weird for a current CCB beer.

Appearance - Mahogany with a nice khaki head. Two fingers in the CBS snifter is not bad. Decent retention, too. No lacing, but that's not surprising at 13%.

Smell - Nutty, malty, and extremely fruity. Dark fruits and some estery fruits as well. Almost like they used a Belgian yeast. General booziness about it, but not 13% boozy.

Taste - Sweet, toffee, caramel malt. Quickly goes to a grainy bitterness and a dry astringent finish. Again, it's got esters that are not to style. Almost acidic tasting, too. Strange and not what I expect.

Mouthfeel - Extremely dry for 13%, although it doesn't taste like 13%. To its credit, it tastes closer to 10%. The astringent finish verges on unpleasant.

Overall - It's decent. Maybe a little better than decent. I don't think I can say it's well-made, due to the off-flavors, but for a 13% ABV barleywine, it's still pretty good. I guess I'm basically forgiving some flaws due to its size.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to JustXBeer for sharing this one at Retsinis' tasting.

Pours a murky dark orange-brown with a foamy khaki head that settles to wisps of film on top of the beer. Small dots of lace form around the glass on the drink down. Smell is of malt, caramel, toffee, honey, and cardboard aromas. Taste is much the same with caramel and herbal hop flavors on the finish. There is a mild amount of hop bitterness on the palate with each sip. This beer has a lower level of carbonation with a slightly crisp mouthfeel. Overall, this is a pretty good beer with slight oxidized aromas that don't show up in the taste.

 

Shared bottle pours clear red-amber with a modest head.

Unusual aroma with a suggestion of rum and brandy. Soft fruits, light malts, and alcohol esters dominate the flavor. ABV partially hidden but not so in the aroma.

Medium body with rather low carbonation.