Very Noddy Lager
Buckbean Brewing Company

I "think" this was my favorite Buckbean beer. Who knows if over a decade later, it still would be. Extreme days of youth or something.

Like most Buckbean beers, this one also poured brown. The head color was slightly different, taking on more of a cherry cola head appearance. 1/3". Had an edge of alcohol, vanilla, weird hop strains. Just wouldn't be a Buckbean beer without some weird hodgepodge hop bill of like Ahtanum, Palisade, Obscuro hop bills.

Taste once again brought the slight weirdness. Booziness, vanilla, earth, brown malt, weird bittering hops, still lighter body than most. The imperialization of this didn't yield any negative results, the sweetness seemed good at tempering the double digit abv. For having double the malt of the regular version, this still didn't stack up to the commercial tug job, still had a light watery aspect. So par for the course, but the real separation was its ability to get drunk on the cheap without perceiving the heat. Feel feel feel feel my heat.

 

 

 

A: Poured a dark black with a nice white cap

S: Toasted malt, cocoa but thats about it

T: Some light cocoa, booze, but thats about all I got from this. Simple

M: Mouthfeel is full bodied but man its pretty flat on taste

D: Average. Nothing impressive

Served in a FFF pint glass

Thanks to Mages64 for hooking me up with my Nevada tick. It's the only beer in the state probably with more wants than gots...for now.

This beer pours a lovely black abyss with a creamy tan head on the surface. I must admit this is rather sexy looking for an imperial schwarzbier. The smell is rather odd. It smells of lots and lots of grapefruit and hops, but it's almost as if it's an artificial citrus flavor and I really can't figure out if I've ever smelled anything quite like it. It's not good, it's not bad, it's just unique. The taste is ungodly sweet. There is a grapefruit flavor and tartness that I almost thought this beer was supposed to be sour. There is way too much black licorice flavor that I don't even know if I can deal with drinking the rest of this beer. It turns out this beer wasn't all that sour it was just a weird tart flavor from the over caramelization of the malts involved with making this perversion of the style along with the ridiculous amount of anise. The mouthfeel is viscous as I would imagine it to be, but with the taste being the way that it is the syrupy nature that this beer has keeps the flavor on your tongue longer than you want it there. It's not the greatest thing in the world to drink. It get easier as it warms, but it's by no mean a walk in the park.

Pours brown with a tan cherry head, always the right head to the top of a buckbean beer. Aroma is lovely, some unique stuff in there, something vanilla, flowery and invitingly boozy about it.

Drinks sweet enough, zesty, unique hop bill, Newport, ahtunum & something else I think. Smooth enough, but amped too to be an imperial schwarzbier. Hides alcohol well, yet is still best as a pleasant sipper.

This beer is almost excellent but doesn't quite get there. I'm not really sure what could have been done differently. Imperial Schwarzbier isn't exactly a heavily trodden path in brewing. The beer pours black with a nice beige head, creamy and thick. The aroma has some excellent dark chocolate, big and bold. Black coffee is relatively strong, too. Flavor is mildly sweet with a rich chocolate flavor. The feel is a tad thin for what's essentially an imperial stout but still rather good. With just a little more malt depth, maybe some more crystal malt, this beer could be excellent.

1 pint can poured into a pilsener glass. This can was an extra from a generous Flexabull. This is a new style for me.

The Very Noddy Lager pours a deep cola brown color with a nice big cream colored head that has great retention. Smell is dominated with sweet malts and some dark raisins and plums. Some chocolate notes as well. Taste is somewhat creamy with some chocolate, vanilla, and burnt toast. The taste is similar to a porter but does not have the lingering bitter taste. Mouthfeel is creamy and medium bodied. Drinkability is fairly high. This wasn't what I expected when I popped the can at all but it was definitely a pleasant surprise. Thanks again Flexabull!

The Very Noddy Lager was a special brewing made for Doug Booth's 40th birthday. They took the Black Noddy recipe and doubled up on hops and malt, calling it an Imperial Schwarzbier. This beer has a big, rich chocolate-colored head, and pours an attractive opaque black. It smells like cocoa powder, and bitter chocolate, and tastes of rich roasted malt, chocolate and coffee, with a hint of dark cherries. This is a powerful brew, at 10.5% alcohol by volume, and while you can certainly taste that, it's more subtle and drinkable than you'd expect.

They call this an "Imperial Schwarzbier". The label says it's the Black Noddy with double the malts and hops.

Pours dark black with a huge thick head.

Nose is toasty and of bitter chocolate.

Taste is pretty clean and straightforward. Some mineral crispness, cocoa, coffee and dark bread flavors. Not really sweet at all. Finish has a hint of an alcohol bite.

Mouthfeel is nice and full. Feels about right for the style.

Drinkability is good. This is an interesting beer, tasty, and a little unique, goes down pretty easy for being such a high ABV beer, worth trying.