Samichlaus Helles
(has 7 batches)

(Bottle, bottled 2007) Clear amber colour with brief, foamy head. Malty, fruity nose with dried fruit, dates, raisins, toast, orange peel, a slight oxidization and a vinous touch of sweet sherry. Malty, fruity taste with notes of dried fruit, dates, toast, orange peel, marmalade, a touch of oloroso sherry, raisins, treacle, honey and a sweet vinous finish with slightly toasty notes. Full body, soft and chewy mouthfeel. Low bitterness. Even at this alcohol level, it’s excellently balanced and quite lovely to sip slowly.

Pours clear light copper color with white head. Fruity aroma with some alcohol. Sweet fruity and malty flavors with slight heat from the alcohol. Medium to full body with moderate carbonation and a syrupy mouthfeel.

2007 bottle. Cellared until date rated. Pours a clear deep gold with a slowly developing minimal head. The head is gone in moments. Sweet aroma that reminds me of fresh apple cider. Sweet and fruity. Verging on syrupy. A bit sweet for my tastes, but it hides it’s alcohol very well and my suit some of you for a cold evening sipper.

Total Wine & More, Fairfax 330ml ($5.50): Pours an unassuming golden color without much head. Nose is all this dirty bock malt like you won’t even believe. It just screams BOCK at you. Tastes like a sugar bomb in my mouth. Yet, it is strangely manageable as the sugar does not stick in my mouth, but rather kind of dissipates, or at least that is the feeling I am getting from the first sip. Yeah this is pretty much all malt and mostly sugar. Reminds me of Kulmbacher Eisbock kind of. Not really my thing, and unless you like your beer super sweet, I don’t see how it would be yours either.

Clear amber with a small off-white head. Aroma is sweet, malty, dried fruit, sugary and alcoholic. Flavor is very sweet and rather bitter. Sweet finish with warming alcohol. Oily. 220312

Bottle. Pale brown/orange with medium white head. Very full aroma. caramel malt. Very strong flavour, with an unpleasant alcohol burn that deadened the tongue. Otherwise, not a bad beer.

Bottle. Clear amber with tiny diminishing white head. Aroma is malt, sweet, fruit and caramel. Flavour is malt, fruit, sweet, caramel, warming, toffee and a little rip fruit.

Bottle @ Ølkonsortiet christmas beer tasting. Pours golden, no head. Aroma of sweet malts, fat caramel, coriands, licorice. Tast is heavily sweet with malt, caramel, anis, coriands, some booze. Full body, low carbonation. Alltough sweet, very enjoyable. 051111

An orange amber helles with a thin off white head. In aroma, a smooth vinous malt with light madera notes, nice and smooth. In mouth, a smooth sweet candy malt, smooth alcohol, light licorice, very nice. Tasted Oct. 15 2011, bottle about 2 years old. Bieropholie import.

So I am sitting here watching Tron Legacy and drinking this beer. It is a 2007 bottle (have they even made this again?). I poured it into a Cigar City snifter, which seems to fit exactly 330mL of beer. The smallest of heads that builds quickly fades atop this beer. The beer is a glowing jellied orange with just a little bit of sediment encased in the body. The beer, well the beer, what is the beer? In this case I will take a Gestalt point of view; the beer is greater than the sum of its parts. The parts are all sweet, rotten fruits, think rotten apple and prune combined. Then mix it up with a good alcoholic kick. Thick, sweet, viscous mouthfeel comes with the package, an added bonus one might say. If I wanted to describe this in three words it would be Alcoholic Syrup Candy. But what is more important is the history this beer or more particularly the name. Samichlaus has a special spot in my heart and while this is overly sweet, alcoholic and slightly messy, it is all in good faith. More importantly Tron Legacy is such a Disney film. And in Disney fashion they steal from better films before it. Best part is the movie is actually a prequel to Mannequin.