keep your nose up

I live pretty far out from the good beer stores, so it's a bit of an odyssey when it comes time to pick up some special brews.  At least in August there isn't a whole lot else going on, so I don't have to feel like I'm being crunched for time.  So I can wander down to Be Hoppy, all the way by Antón Martín; actually, I have a warm feeling for Be Hoppy, since it's where I chanced to go during Filomena and it ended up being the only beer store open in town.  Lo, the beer gods did smile upon me that day.  And probably today too, since they do have a selection of oddities and specialties that rivals pretty much anyone else's.  I did get something on the regular side, a German bock with an imperious looking goat on the label.  It was the goat that got me, and the name, Impulsator, just sealed the deal.

So, a nice, toasty caramel color, head starts out fluffy but dies back a bit.  It's candy-like in aroma, almost molasses-y.  I tell myself there's a little bit of toastiness too, but I'm not completely sure it isn't a psychological reaction to the color.  It's not quite as sweet a flavor as I expected, but it is definitely on the sweet side, with very little bitterness at all.  It's relatively heavy, like one would expect from a darker German beer, and I'm expecting it to go a little syrupy if I let it warm up too much.  As it is, it's a mouthful but not too much to handle.  It's a good evening beer in spite of the overall feeling of it being more of fall holiday beer, but that could just be my affinity for the darker ones.  I don't know if I would actually find it all that refreshing on a bright and sunny Madrid afternoon, but I might drink it and enjoy it just to spite the weather.