Ten Years Alt

This is one of those type of beers that you know you sampled and enjoyed at a Fest, but later on blank-out on, until you see again a few months or years later. In this case, I know I both sampled and quite enjoyed this beer while volunteering at the 2006 Extreme Beer Festival -- the Victory booth was just across the way from the VIP Booth I was pouring at, so it was a no-brainer -- but then kinda forgot all about it until now: sipping a glassful from a bottle purchased while on a business trip to the Laurel MD area.

And you know what? This is damn tasty -- and a damn shame that it slipped my mind until now...!

Maybe this is the first Doppelsticke brewed in the US, or maybe not -- I'm not familar enough with the style (sub-style?) to have much of an input on that question.

But I do know that this mighty tasty, and quite a big n' burley Ale Bier, for sure. A ton of back-end German hops in the front of the boil, and not really anywhere else, giving the rock-hard malt bill plenty of room to breathe.

Nicely filling in the mouthfeel -- while, at the same time, cleverly hiding the fact that this is actually in the 8.5%ABV neighborhood. A welcome amount of skillful subtlety, that....

Finishes a little sweet -- the malt freight-train finally catching up, and delivering it's malty load, as it were -- but still a nice, quite interesting beer. Recommended.
//TB