Jester King Brewery's Commercial Suicide

You know what I like less than a beer that foams out? Nothing. Not a damn thing. It ruins the beer, strips the body, and in a beer already listed as mild there;s simply no room for this sort of thing.

Poured about 1/8 of an inch of beer, and several inches of foam. When that settled down, the beer was a coppery brown like a bock, with a head that would never go away. Which is usually a good thing, but not now.

Smells like a light Belgian beer. Like I could like it, if not for the weird yeast esters that Belgians put off.

There's something wrong with this beer. The empty taste and feel have to be because it foamed out. The cardboard bitterness, however, is most likely where it should be. But it really shouldn't be here. And it's awful bitter for a dark mild, or any mild. Like they're monkeying with the style as much as someone monkeyed with their stupid labels.

I'll probably try it again sometime just because I question whether or not something happened to this batch or this bottle. I think it was stored ok for the small amount fo time it was out of the store, but it cannot be this way on purpose.

Despite the stupid brewery name, label art and dumb beer names I've always wanted to like this brewery. They make it hard.

Wychwood Brewery's Hobgoblin Dark English Ale

I've seen this in larger bottles but the label art always pushed me away. So I was glad to find a twelve-ouncer that I could put in a mixed sixer. Because I have to try it, but I don't want to buy too much of it, since I'm expecting a flop.

Pours like a brown, with moderate carbonation and a thin tan head. Not bad, really, but I was expecting darker as in toward black.

Smells like sweet bread. Plus a little something that smells like a cross between cloves and allspice.

It has a fizzy soft drink feel, with an odd bitterness that gets very harsh, like cardboard. Moderately hoppy, which fades to the dull bitterness. The odd spice taste is there as well, but duller. In general, it has the body of a macro with the taste, I don't know, of a dark macro. Tastes like lots of adjunct grains.

Glad it's only a single bottle.

Unibroue's Chambly Noire

A beer in honor of a French regiment? I hope it puts up a better fight than they do. Or at least isn't known for massacring a bunch of indians.

Head's too big. Yes, too big. Pours opaque black with amber edges and a big tan head that gets in the way. I pour into a glass that's twice as big as I need for a regular 12 oz. bottle, and I had to stop pouring. It fades, but it shouldn't have been that big from the start.

Smells decent, but I hope the head isn't throwing off all the flavor. Malty and a bit sweet, it smells like the schwarzbier I had yesterday but with that Belgian overly ripe fruit smell.

Yeah, it actually feels like a lager because of the over-carbonation, but tastes like a Belgian double. And as you know if you've read any of this blog, I'm not a Belgian fan. Nor am I a Unibroue fanboy. On top of that it has an odd twangy aftertaste that can't go away fast enough.

Glad it was a part of a mixed pack, so I didn't have to spend too much for it.