Krampus Speciale
Birrificio Del Ducato

 

 

 

 

 

Ick, bleck, huuuugggrrr, gack are the words that come to mind. It's like the sewer backed up into the system while brewing. The aroma is akin to being in and outhouse. The gag that comes with the first hesitant mouthful is the same as trying to eat a live cave spider. The finish leaves a vile taste in your mouth that makes you think drinking bleach may be a good idea because it would be better than having this flavor linger. I'm fairly certain my taste buds have suffered irreparable damage and worry that any future beers will taste only of water and fine foods bear resemblance to cardboard. I have no idea how this beer scored so high.

 

Day 5 of the BeerAdvent Calendar.

Pours a hazy copper with a finger of head that dissipates.

Nose is aggressive! Sour/vinegar is predominant.

Taste is very complex. The tart sour flavour is by far the most predominant but there is a very nice spice and pepper flavour that is in the finish.

I am only just beginning to appreciate sours.

You will either love it or hate it. I love it.

Another interesting experience, thanks to my Craft Beer Advent Calendar. I'm not a huge fan of sour flavours, but I am always open to new experiences. This is a complex and extremely interesting beer - the tart fruit and peppery finish are like nothing else I've experienced. In some ways, it reminds me of a chipotle ale, with a sour fruit explosion in front of it. I had never heard of Krampus before, so this experience proves again that beer makes you smarter.

330ml bottle, day 5 of the 2014 Craft Beer Advent calendar. Not quite sure what the 'Speciale' denotes, but it seems like the Krampus listings here need a bit of reworking/clarification.

This beer pours a muddled, cloudy medium orange brick amber colour, with one skinny finger of barely foamy, and mostly just fizzy dirty white head, which leaves little beyond a few instances of skinny ocean plume lace around the glass as it quickly blows off.

It smells of funky yeast, tart lemon, dark berry, and lime fruitiness, acrid white cheese, grainy pale malt, a hard water stoniness, and earthy, leafy, and somewhat floral hops. The taste is zippy and tart lemon and white grapefruit peel, softly funky and cheesy yeast, bready pale malt, a hint of metallic alcohol, and more genial earthy, weedy, and leafy hops.

The bubbles are plainly active and engaging, in a generally still fizzy manner, the body on the lee side of medium weight, and a bit too tight and astringent from the fruity acids to be deemed all that smooth. It finishes on the dry side, acid, funk, and overwhelmed malt the order of the day.

So, my impression for this one is that it's the non-Christmas ale version of Krampus, which doesn't really make sense, since Krampus is a European alpine Yuletide fixture. At any rate, a decent sour, with enough brown malt to justify its style listing here, even if it kind of betrays its heretofore worthy status for the Advent calendar from which it came.