vroom, vroom

It's not a black beer, but it is pretty dark, and strong besides.  Attik Brewing offers Hot Rod American Strong Ale for another rainy December day, with a label that ought to warm the table.  It looks exciting, and vaguely dark and dangerous.

It has the dark color of a strong beer, with a light beige and resistant head.  There's a little bit of apple floating around in the air, again hitting the notes of strong beers in memory.  For some reason I expected a thicker and sweeter entrance, something like a barleywine, but it is not like that at all.  It's strongly bitter, playing up the ale part of its build, with a bit appley sweetness wandering in only when most of the sip is already down your throat.  The bitter never goes away either.  Although it's not a heavy or sticky beer, echoes of sharp bitterness remain much longer than you expect.  Good to keep you from chugging it down too fast, I would imagine.

to the top

Suddenly, a large can!  I almost expect it to be a low or even another non-alcoholic beer, but it is Penthaus, Attik Brewing's weizen bock.  A good style to fiddle with, connected to a very seasonally influencing country.  What I wonder is if it will lean into a champagne taste to go with its name.

It's oddly dark for a weizen, but bubbly and sporting a jaunty little white head.  The aroma is very standard beery, a little malty and a little grainy.  The flavor is sweet-and-sour, with a little bitter punch at the end, sort of a reminder of warmer days past.  Although bocks can have a sweeter and maltier flavor, this one's almost sugary presentation is a bit of a surprise.  The beer also has a pretty heavy mouthfeel, more like what you expect from bocks.  It's clean enough at first, but starts to layer up over the course of many sips.  Certainly not champagne, or even cava, with enough attention you can start to sense clove and other spices sneaking out, but it's definitely a more modern iteration of its style.