Žatec Strong
Žatecký Pivovar

Jan. 2017: Shared 500 ml bottle at local tasting, ABV 7.3%. Deep golden to orange colour, white head. Aroma of sweetish malts, caramel and alcohol. Sweet and grainy flavour, not good. Hardly any hops.

500ml bottle poured into tulip 26/11/15

A clear light copper with just a short lived finger of foam that leaves a couple polka dots of lace

S nutty hard toffee, some apple pie filling nutmeg included, more out of place all-spice but it works, faint coffee surprises me in a beer this light in color

T malty and spicy, wrong spice to be noble notes but I pick up on some faint hops shining through the malt, over-ripe bruised apple, maybe even a hint of coco, I rather like this one

M medium bodies, bubbles soften it up, some bitterness, a little slick on the palate, some earthy, herbal, spicy, hops linger with some toffee

O this one was a bit of a surprise, I was expecting some crappy, strong euro lager but I thought it was pretty good, drinkable and no mention of the 7.3%

Just another tick turned out to be something fairly solid, enough going to please and I could see myself grabbing another down the road

500ml bottle - hard to tell the style, but there's mention of things 'bavarian', so Imma gonna give it the benefit of the doubt for starters.

This beer pours a clear, bright medium bronzed amber colour, with one skinny-ass finger of weakly puffy, densely foamy, and mildly bubbly off-white head, which leaves a bit of wavecrest lace in places around the glass as things slowly sink away.

It smells of semi-sweet caramel malt, faintly biscuity toffee, muted overripe red apples and pears, herbal, floral, and grassy hops, and a sidling cold alcohol measure. The taste is bready, slightly doughy caramel malt, more heady butterscotch-tinted toffee notes, still muddled bruised orchard fruit, a twinge of coffee-flecked dark chocolate, and a decent complement of earthy, leafy, and herbal noble hops - just a hint of perfumed booziness lurks around the perimeter.

The carbonation is quite low and unobtrusive in its gently coddling frothiness, the body one damned sturdy middleweight, and mostly smooth, only the elevated ABV maybe treading a wee bit too clumsily for my palate's care. It finishes trending sweet, sure, but moderated well enough by hop, estery fruit, and alcohol to keep re-up always the preferred option.

I was indeed a bit leery about the strong bock connotations swirling about this offering, but I can assure you, dear reader, that the alternative (Euro Strong Lager) is much too plain and lacking in swarthiness to apply here. So, I gotta say, as I delve deeper into the morass, that I like this a whole hell of a lot more than at least the average German-made example out there. Yeah, I said it.