Shangrila
Birrificio Troll

Shared bottle at RBNAG 2011. Amber colour. Moderate perfumed aroma, hints of acetone. Some malts in the flavour, bready notes, a slight acidity. Not impressive.

 

Listed on the "1001", I probably will not review this because I will not buy it again.

 

Flashback #366

Amber brown color with a one finger head with short retention.
Aroma of anise, molasses, cinnamon, ginger and guaraná.
Similarly, flavor with notes of star anise, cinnamon, ginger, caramels, cardamom, mild banana, booze, coriander, overripe oranges, candi sugar, pineapple juice, white grapes and some English earthy hops. Dry and alcoholic aftertaste.
Light bordering medium body with appropriate carbonation. Alcohol of 8.5% is felt.
Very complex beer with lots of spices, but in my opinion it could have a better balance between them. Anise, ginger and cardamom are shadowing the others that could give a spicy feeling to it. Where are the Curry and pepper? This was not my Shangri-La once I am not a big fan of anise.

 

 

 

Pours a reddish amber hue, clear body with white head, nothing particularly special. Looks fluid, and very pale for the style. Not great.

Smells very phenolic, with a herbal hop aroma but an overwhelming whiff of booze as well. Slight diacetyl-ish character coming through midway, maybe just a touch too much sweetness there. Bit metallic on the back. I'm afraid it's actually unpleasant.

Malty sweet all over the palate, with some slight fruity notes upfront, raisiny sweetness. From the midpoint on it's all big booze notes though, which also dries up the potentially pleasant opening notes. Just too big. Needs so much more body here to combat the strength in the flavour. Basically all the flavour and complexity of flavour is swallowed up and sapped out by the booze.

No real texture at all either. A shame.

Got my growler filled with this at Cellarbrations and pours a very dark non see through amber hue which leaves a two finger wispy head and a rim of lacing,the smell is caramel,banannas,raisins and boozy alcohol i dont smell much of the curry or spice,the mouthfeel is medium bodied and once again abit of a let down as not full bodied as had hoped and on taste i get strong sweet toffee malts along with caramel,warming alcohol,raisins,sweet apricots and finished with the sweet candied malts once again and overall after the reading the spiel on what this brew had added to it i was quite interested but i dont really get the strong spice or curry as promised and unfortunately i would not revisit this cheers.

Pours dark amber with a small, fading head.
Noes shows sweet caramel, over-ripe bananas, faint unidentifiable spices, may some garlic.
Some sweet malt transfers through as a flavour, whilst the spices remain in the background, although they are a little more pronounced than in the aroma. some alcohol shows through, along with a metallic note.
Carbonation is a bit excessive.

 

On-tap at the Local Taphouse for their Italian SpecTapular.

Pours a pale amber hue, quite clear with a very light and rather insipid body. Head forms a thin ring of off-white. No lace. Overall, it looks pretty damn disappointing.

Nose is similarly disappointing. Instead of the heady array of Himalayan spices I was promised, we get weakly fermented apple cider with a touch of cinnamon as almost a throw-away afterthought. Very light on, as well, giving very little up at all.

Spicy characters on the front of the palate at least, again focussing mainly on a slightly sweet cinnamon character, that builds to a pasty cinnamon-sugar dosage on the finish. Some phenols come in mid palate to do something I don't know what. There's not a lot here for them to meld with or clash against.

Feel is light, but with a tingle from the spice.

Overall, no, it's not a bad beer, per se, but it sure is pretty dull given when it promises.

Light, kinda straw brown body, cloudy, lightish tan head, thin.

Nose is a bit odd. Kinda metal tang.

Taste has coriander, and some spice; anise is there I guess, the rest (I had to read the bottle) are hard to pin down as well. Overall impression is Belgian golden ale. Faintly bitter.

Mouthfeel is light with faint carbonation.

Interesting, but the spices aren't present enough to be compelling.

 

 

A pin at Farmers' Cabinet. Shangrila aged in sherry barrels that held JW Lees Harvest Ale.

A: The ale pours with a thick and pulpy look, ample sediment hazing over the ale and giving it a reddish-brown color. No head.

S: Vanilla, sherry strength and wood. Mild sourness follows. The base Shangrila beer has a very unique spice profile that, unfortunately, doesn't come through very well. Instead, it is swallowed up by the sherry barrel notes.

T: On the initial serve, the vanilla and wood are strong, fortified by the sherry. A very mild sourness follows but hardly enough to look at the ale as a sour. Instead, the wood dominates. As in the nose, the underlying ale tends to disappear, lost behind the sweet sherry notes. Easily the most complex of the offerings, not to mention a very rare find.

M: The mouthfeel picks up thick barleywine, sweet vanilla and fortified sherry. The complexity is admirable, a true sipping beer.

 

Pours a lighter body than expected for a dark ale and has a two-finger head that dies slow. Really hoppy and bitter aroma with a load of spices; corriander, pepper, clove...not too great w/ spices but there are some in this beer. A light-to-medium body that can even be described as slightly creamy. Tastes seem to vary from tart and citric fruits with some dryness from yeast and bread malt as well as some sweetness from caramel and hint of tropical fruit and/or grape and cherry. Beer is OK balanced but it seems to get caught up on the malts and the fruit flavors are a little bit bland and then the ABV kinda bleeds into the finish. An OK beer but just slightly misses the mark.