New Belgium 1554 Enlightened Black Ale (Beer Review)

From the website:

"Born of a flood and centuries-old Belgian text, 1554 Enlightened Black Ale uses a light lager yeast strain and dark chocolaty malts to redefine what dark beer can be. In 1997, a Fort Collins flood destroyed the original recipe our researcher, Phil Benstein, found in the library. So Phil and brewmaster, Peter Bouckaert, traveled to Belgium to retrieve this unique style lost to the ages. Their first challenge was deciphering antiquated script and outdated units of measurement, but trial and error (and many months of in-house sampling) culminated in 1554, a highly quaffable dark beer with a moderate body and mouthfeel."

The first thing I noticed about this beer was a slight oddity in the coloring. Maybe it was the glass I was using, maybe it was the lighting, I don’t know, but toward the top of the glass, the beer was black, as opposed to the bottom where it was a dark amber. Kinda weird, I thought.

There was something about the taste and feel of the beer that I couldn’t quite grasp. It had an almost earthy mouthfeel. Had this been a Trappist ale, I would have expected a bit of sediment to go along with it. And the taste was almost smokey.

The beer was definitely drinkable, but if I’m craving a dark beer, I’d probably just go with a better stout or porter and give this a pass.

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Listening to: 3 Doors Down - When It's Over
via FoxyTunes