Shuggademic Strong Ale
Lake Stevens Brewing Company

Brewery tap-filled can, poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a medium coppery amber with a fine, two finger white head with great retention and solid lacing. Aroma of vaguely caramel and pale malt, light fresh, dried and ripe stone fruit and light molasses. Flavor is dry candi malt, grassy and citrus hops, dried and over-ripe light stone fruit, lemon, hay and honey flavor without much sweetness. Medium bodied with light to moderate creaminess. This shows the range of the strong ale category; it's definitely a strong ale with sturdy ABV, but hard to pin down. It has solid hop bitterness and is somewhat reminiscent of Arrogant Bastard but with less assertive bitterness; the fruity malt character is similar. There are element so of malt liquor as well. From the name I was expecting something like Brown Sugar, but this is not sweet, so the sugars have mostly ended up as alcohol. The flavors tended toward the citrus range as I sipped my glass over time. When I picked this up, i thought it was a one-off, but I see it's been on the site for a while with no reviews, perhaps no one has quite been able to decide what to make of it. I liked it. Robust, different and worth a try.