7

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7

2014:This is available starting yesterday. 2014’s edition retains the stats, but is leaner, less sweet, but also slightly less complex - malt-driven and straightforward, making me just a tad less impressed than last year, though it’s still a tasty strong lager, and I’m not changing the score. 2013:At the Ilica location yesterday. Well well well, after the dunkelweizen, things seem to be getting even more serious. An 18° dark/black lager, nice! I felt that it was slightly under-attenuated at 6.9% - perhaps they didn’t wish to have a beer as strong as their Grička Vještica (15°, 7.5%), to encroach on its "strongest beer in Croatia" marketing point... Eh, who knows. This poured a murky cola body with a greyish beige thick lasting white head. Strong, lovely strawberry jam aroma, making me think it could be spiced, but it claims not to be. The taste is sweeter than it should be (as one could’ve guessed by the statistics), but nice, coffee notes, strawberry notes - the maltiness here is quite good actually. Now the problem would be the off bitterish notes, dry, in the background. Heavy, just a touch messy, but quite respectable beer. 3.45 really.