The Upsidedown
Lamplighter Brewing Company

16 oz can acclimated to room temperature for 20 minutes and poured into a tulip glass.

Pours black with orange highlights and a 1 finger frothy khaki head, leaving moderate lacing.

Initial aroma is sour like yogurt, with maybe some coffee coming through? I think a little raspberry too.

Initial taste is sour followed by bitter, slightly metallic chocolate with a raspberry note. This raspberry lasts into the finish, long into the late finish.

It was very enjoyable! Would buy again.

Pours a deep cola color with some ruby tints. Huge tan head that lasts before falling to a thin cap, hefty ring, nice cling.

The smell is interesting. Grainy, a whiff of spicy rye, a bit of a toast. Very mildly smokey? Some fruitiness and spices. Belgianesque esters. Interesting and pretty laid back.

The taste is very malty - mild roast with a little milk chocolate and a touch of sweetness. Biscuity. Mild rye spiciness, some mild smoke character. ToffeePhenol spices, mild fruity esters. It finishes with bready notes, mild chocolate, slightly sweet. Peppery spices come and go, making a strong reappearance in the aftertaste as white pepper. There is a toffee undertone throughout and some clove popping in. This is fun to drink.

Feel is a little creamy, but it's fairly light. There's a bit of a coating phenomenon. It's a tad dry but the spices are inducing some salivation.

Very cool beer. I'm diggin' it a lot. It seems to borrow some Schwarzbier characteristics. Light, the flavors play well together - nice beer.

Pours a deep mahogany with a good light tan head that persists well. Smell is malts and caramel. Taste is quite different to the nose, being full of dark fruit - think raisins and figs and faint notes of plum in the back. The rye also makes its presence known. My can is older, so perhaps the nose suffered, but the flavor is a wonderful surprise. The pairing suggestion on the can ("waffles") suddenly makes sense. My can says the ABV is 8% so maybe the recipe has been tweaked since the early reviews.

Overall this was a very pleasant surprise. I wasn't expecting to like it, and that expectation persevered until the first sip. It's definitely not an every day beer (both for the high ABV and the sweetness), but one that's worth making time (and waffles) for.

Canned 10/29/20
Pours a med-large frothy foamy off-white 1.5 finger head with great retention, nice soapy lacing, dark mahogany brown color

Nose lots of interesting malt characters, a gristy grain, spicy rye, some dark toasted malts, a little roasty note, an almost smokey character, with some herbal spices, Belgian phenol spices, light fruity esters, little toasted biscuity

Taste brings lots more malt, a bit sweet with a creamy toasted brown malt character, little cocoa and roast, toasted biscuity grain, a little spicy rye character, as well as light phenol spices, light bitter spicy hop notes, a little fruity ester, then a little bread crust and chocolate late, dry finish with a bit more spicy hop

Mouth is med bod, a bit creamy, med-higher foamy carb, alcohol hidden well

Overall not bad, somewhere between a saison and almost Schwarzbier like character, an interesting beer

 

Dark saison!
Poured from a can fresh from the brewery.

Pours a dark brown with a thin tan head. Atypical for a satisfying but it's an intriguing beer.
Smells of dark fruits, caramel, mildly sweet and yeast esters.
Tastes very nice, with toasted caramel malts, raisin, spices, dry Belgian farmhouse yeast character and residual sweetness.
Medium body, fine carbonation, dry in the middle with a light sweet finish.

Overall very nice, an interesting, unique beer and well executed. Very happy to pick this up again!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pint can dated a month ago, 4/26/18. Pours without head or fizzing, just a wisp of a film. Deep caramel brown, but not too dark and not hazy. Smell of mildly toasted malts. Taste is a jumbled mix of some toasted malts and some traces of saison pepper. Feel lacks carbonation, has some malty body and some prickly spice. Overall, this seems like it had quality ingredients put into it but I don't find the mix of flavors attractive. You're not going to be missing much if you skip this premium priced experiment.

 

 

 

 

Poured a lighter chocolate color 1F head in a Mikasa Tulip. The head quickly subsided in a few minutes.

Aroma: spice,fig, raisin- quite unusual for the style.

Medium carbonation-I like this for a Saison.

Excellent taste. One of the better tastes in a Saison.Quite different: plum, raisin, fig, and spice.

Great approach and very different. Plum raisin, fig, and spice are not the usual for a Saison.
Another distinctive brew form Lamplighter.