Aroma is some toffee cactus fruit some more tropic fruit a bit resin. Taste is sweet toffee with some bitter hop counterpoint. Incredibly drinkable. Nice.

German ale hopped with Topaz, from a beer company operating at Rogg in southwestern Germany apparently; many thanks to bartlebier for the bottle - and to tderoeck for passing it to me. Membranously lacing, thick, frothy, regularly shaped, pale yellowish beige head, very stable and remaining closed for most of the time, crowning a hazy amberish bronze beer with faint khaki tinge. Expressively malty and modern hoppy nose of sweet paprika, biscuit, red onions, frying oil, toasted bread, cheese crust, wormwood, dried apricot, pink peppercorns, grapefruit peel, green olive. Cleanly fruity onset, some dried apricot and apple peel sweetishness with a dash of green olive somewhere, dim sourish undercurrent, medium carbonated with a full, rounded mouthfeel. Pleasantly biscuity and caramelly, eventually mildly toasted bittersweet malt body, supporting an expressive, well-positioned modern hop profile, depositing a rooty, wormwoody bitterness on the root of the tongue - softened by the toasted bitterness - and pushing up grapefruity, floral and paprika-like hop aromas retronasally. Warming, gin-like alcohol afterglow, but remaining well-masked and not disturbing the delicate play of malts and hops. Somewhat of an American strong ale along the lines of Stone's Arrogant Bastard and the like - more and more of these American style craft beers are coming out of Europe's most protective and conservative beer country these days, an exciting thing to follow. Has a certain 'Gründlichkeit' to it, perfectly balanced and well-bodied, while at the same time being up to date in its hop profile and retaining a high drinkability and appetizing character. Nice one!