La Fat
Silver City Brewery & Taproom

Note, purchased back in first quarter 2006.

Judging Temperature, 50 degrees. Service Glassware, 12 ounce Tulip glass.

Appearance: burgundy & dense with a faint red sunset at the bottom of the glass. A tan foamy head rises from the deep with a fading lace.
The nose can detect, dates, raisins, some plum, and some apple. Swallowing, I felt a strong caramel, some slight hop bitterness in the backend, some plums, and a bit of raisins. The mouthfeel is slightly, medium.

Overall, I am impressed by the age and resilience of this 26 ounce Belgian Dark Ale.

Cheers

Appearance – This is a pretty and kind of dirty brown in color with a big head that dissipated rather quickly.

Smell – The Belgian maltiness converges with a good, lightly toasted doughy aroma, and together they really set the tone. The fruits are overripe like a rotted peach, which you wouldn’t want to eat but is a wonderful flavor to drink.

Taste – The Belgian malts are complimented with some woody notes. There’s a light winey kind of fruity booze to this one as well. The fruits expand a bit, giving this a more complex sweet profile. They seem a little darker at the taste then they did at the (warmed) nose, mostly dates and plums now.

Mouthfeel – This is definitely bigger than medium-bodied but far from full. It has a nice if slightly overcarbonated mouthfeel.

Drinkability – This is an excellent effort at the BSDA style by Silver City. It does go down a bit clumsily due to the carbonation but otherwise is a good-drinking ale.

Wow, this is quite a beer to be coming from what I know to be a relatively small brewery operating in a fairly obscure part of Washington state.

I was surprised at the smokiness that I got from it, as I had not expected that. I found it quite pleasant, but a friend of mine with whom I was sharing the bottle was not so impressed with this particular aspect (or with the beer as a whole, but this is not his review!). This "smokiness" was present in the aroma as well as the palate.

The head was gorgeous and white, which was a great contrast to the darkness of the beer itself.

The mouthfeel was incredible, and the effervescence stood out and made the beer much more drinkable than what I would expect of this style and this beer's own alcohol content.

I was thoroughly pleased with this offering, and I hope that it's more widely available. This is so much better than many other beers coming in from all over the country that I think it could be a huge hit outside of the local market.

I tried this back during the cask fest and thought it was ok, perhaps a tad too sweet. How does it fare nearly half a year later? Near perfect.
As I poured I caught the distinct whiff of banana that made me think of a hefe. I worried that there may be trouble ahead but I never smelled the scent again. Back to the pour ...
Luscious brown topped with an inch of off white head. Not as creamy looking of a head as many other belgians but it still looked pretty nice. The aroma is slightly syrupy darker fruits like prunes and plums. A smidge of apple closes. Mmm, damn good taste. Dried plums, a dash of black cherry, spice and a mellow almost butterscotch at the end. Several seconds later I taste a bit of grain. Mouthfeel is perfectly carbonated, the bubbles dance over your tongue. I see myself picking up several of these and drinking them on when the time is perfect. A nearly flawless beer. Kudos to you at Silver City for yet another fantastic brew!