Santa's Sac
Bridge Brewing Company

Slightly hazy dark orange-gold color. Poured a very short head that disappeared in seconds. High flow of tiny bubbles rising from the bottom of the glass. Left no lace.

Sweet. Smells like the early stage of white wine must fermentation; maybe the first release of Austrian Sturm in the season. Strong lily floral scent. Some mild herb adjacent to mint. Faint yeast to go with the wine smell. Maybe just a touch of malt. Swirling the glass kicked up a light barnyard and a new plastic toy smell for a few seconds.

Malt and dried fruit flavor, similar to a Christmas pudding. Some powdered ginger with something else that is between cardamom and cinnamon. Not as sweet to the taste as I expected from the smell. Medium bitters; seems more than the 30 IBUs on the label. A bit of ground black pepper heat. The aftertaste is a quick burst of the pepper heat and then it turns to a stronger bitter yeast funk with some odd chemical flavors. The bitter funk slowly fades away.

Medium tongue tingling; more carbonation than expected from the short head. Quickly turned into a fine bubbled foam. A little oily towards the end.

While the bitters were at a nice level when drinking, they turned excessive in the aftertaste. Add in the weird chemical flavor in the aftertaste and you wind up with something that starts good but builds a strong incentive to never swallow.

My opinion this beer had OK looks and smell, but too over whelming with the spice. Also the after taste lingered way to long and was not pleasant. My buddies laughed at the face I made when tiring this beer, and I returned it then they tried. We have tried this beer twice, first and last time in one mouth full. This is only the second beer the groups of us have tried where know one could finish it.

 

 

Clear, Copper-bronze, no head, very little carbonation.

Grassy spice aroma, with a little caramel, vanilla & cider.

Biscuit and caramel with a light spice.

Good body, with a drying finish.

Normally I’d consider aging something this strong, but there already some light oxidation.

355ml bottle, day 22 of the 2017 Craft BeerAdvent Calendar. Pretty cheeky name on this one, as the spelling of 'sac' implies something other than that big bag (or 'sack') that Santa carries around. See, I just unintentionally made the same double entendre! Anyways, a 'golden strong ale'.

This beer pours a hazy, effervescent medium copper amber colour, with one chubby finger of puffy, finely foamy, and somewhat creamy off-white head, which leaves some calving iceberg pattern lace around the glass as it gently subsides.

It smells of fermenting white grape juice, bready and doughy caramel malt, some muddled earthy spiciness, further simple syrup notes, and very subtle leafy, musty, and perfumed floral green hop bitters. The taste is bready and grainy caramel malt, a settled-down Belgian yeastiness, some grape, banana, pear, and light plum fruity esters, ethereal generic spice, and more well understated earthy, musty, and floral hoppiness.

The carbonation is pretty low-key in its dialed-in frothiness, the body a solid middleweight, and more or less smooth, nothing really getting in the way here, surprisingly. It finishes on the sweet side, the malt, fruit, and sneaky alcohol arranging as such.

Overall - this is an agreeable enough version of the style, with the two selling points (at least according to the marketing blurb on the label) working to produce a sort of balanced affair. Yup, the Belgian yeast and German hops somehow take a potentially sweet, boozy mess, and coax it to land on its feet - unlike me when I'm done with this serving.