Holy Mother of God
Lazarus Brewing Company

up there with my favorite beers we had in here. they call this a belgian barleywine on their menu, and it is positively enormous. sort of a deep caramel colored brew, reddish at the edges, patiently foamy and with a lot of viscosity apparent. it has a crazy nose, not too often we get the malt richness and density of a good english barleywine coupled with the estery uniqueness of belgian yeast, but thats how this one presents itself, banana and clove and ginger even, port wine and sherry, white pepper and candied fruit all from the yeast. the grain contributes butterscotch and molasses, fig and raisin, wet wood and even bourbon, although this has not seen a barrel. its so dense, so thick, like if it were boiled any longer it would be more of a solid than a liquid, and i like that, especially with the yeast somehow lightening it up. sure its sweet, but the malt flavors are incredible and this is really long, i wouldnt want it any different than it is. this combination of grain and yeast is incredible, a really cool recipe and neat take on a barleywine. its boozy too, warming but not hot, definitely more winter than summer, super different and really good overall though. a shockingly interesting glass of beer here, and it buzzed me right up!

 

The brewery describes this as a “Belgian Bareleywine” - which is not one of the available categories. In any event, this is a great beer! If you swing by the brewery and only have time for one beer - get this one if available.

Complex, all kinds of flavors going on, but well balanced and very tasty.

Dark reddish brown with nice head and lacing. Dark fruit smell. Tastes of high quality fruit cake, pears, apricot, molasses, dark cherries, and other stuff. Yum!