Magnificent Janus
Railway City Brewing Company

 

650 mL bottle picked up at the brewery; best before June 1 2015 and served at cellar temperature. This is an odd duck indeed - dubbed a 'dunkle-dubble-hefe-weizen-bock' by the brewers, who decided to include tamarind in the recipe as well - this is somewhere in-between a Belgian dubbel and a weizenbock.

Pours a cloudy brownish-copper colour, producing one finger of loose, off-white froth that recedes steadily over the next period of minutes. A thin, bubbly cap and collar is left in its wake, though little-to-no lace is produced. There's a good, bold nose on this one - sour tamarind leaps out at you initially - but beneath that, you'll find a sizeable dose of wheaty malt sweetness, caramel, and banana. Stone and orchard fruits also comprise significant portions of the bouquet; particularly apricot, plum, pear and raisin.

Interesting flavour. Tamarind, alongside more typical 'weizenbock' notes of wheaty malt sweetness, caramel and banana, adds an additional dimension to the flavour profile; providing a noticeable bit of tartness that works nicely with the malt-forwardness of the brew. Plum, apricot and raisin offer up some pleasurable fruity notes, finishing with a combo of boozy stone fruit/tamarind sweetness and light clove spiciness. Medium in body, with low levels of carbonation that provide only a subtle agitation on the palate.

Final Grade: 3.86, a B+. Railway City's Magnificent Janus is quite possibly the most high-abv beer that these guys have released, and it hasn't turned out too bad at all. It's a little too sweet and boozy to be something that I'd seek out, but the tamarind gives this one some added depth and welcome complexity. This one's worth a shot, but ultimately I'd still rather be drinking a regular old German weizenbock/dunkelweizen.