Colossal IX
Port City Brewing

 

 

The beer pours a nice tan head that does not dissipate for a while. The beer itself is a clear and brownish amber that looks very nice.

The smell is good. It has a delicious bouquet that consists of a moderate ripe banana buffeted by a ripe plum and grape note with hints of clove.

The taste is delicious. It starts with a delicious mixture of clove and dark fruits such as a ripened plum and grape before the banana comes out to create a delicious fruity flavor that ends with a slight alcohol sweetness in the finish.

The feel is good. It has a medium body with the perfect amount of weight: not too heavy but not light either. It has a very smooth body like it is liquid metal with very tiny and fizzy carbonation to it.

Overall, this is a delicious and fantastic beer. It is also one of their best anniversary beers if not the best.

Bottle dated 10/6:
The cloudiness was sorta ugly streaming from the bottle, and the cloudy result in the glass looks like an unfiltered iced tea . On a soft pour, it looked like chunks were flowing, though I could not see any in the cloudy result. My second bottle, I went a tad more aggressive and a nice, creamy off-white head did build up and fall slowly, countering my first pour where it didn't start out large, but kept the body covered through the whole glass. Lacing was pretty light in both cases.

Outside of look, this beer was a winner for me, though.

A big malty nose greeted me before I sipped. Port City's own description of "banana, dark fruit, toffee" is pretty much on. In initial whiffs, I got an almost a banana split aspect: fresh cut, medium ripe (no green/no brown) banana and an accent of strawberry (somewhat surprisingly) brought this impression to mind. An aspect of clove led to a little side battle of toffee bread pudding and fresh banana bread.

The feel was nice and soft, with a lightly engaging carbonation. The expected richness of dessert bread was not present out of the gate. There was a distinctly unripe banana note to open - more tangy than sweet, with a little bit of unsweetened raisin as well. A bit of caramel malt sneaked in from behind this leading my palate to the more expected medium dark bread. There's enough neutral bitterness to keep this bread from seeming like the desserts described in the nose - more of a bread with perhaps a thin swirl of spice and brown sugar running through it.

This beer seemed to be teetering on the balance beam between a caramel drizzled but not rich and sweet doughy dessert and a more dry banana bread was made with less-ripe bananas and sweetened more by finely minced figs and raisins than a bunch of [brown] sugar. Either way, clove and perhaps some other earthy fall spices were involved. I really enjoyed the nuance of the flavors in this beer and this was one of those beers I wanted another as soon as I finished the first, so I had one.