Utopias!

On Saturday night I attended an awesome beer tasting at a friends house, mainly on the premise of drinking a bottle of Sam Adams Utopias. This is a crazy beer weighing in at 27%abv, meaning that if you drank 12oz of it, it'd be the equivalent of an entire six pack of bud light.

Needless to say we did not drink 12oz of it, but split a 24oz bottle six ways for 4oz a piece. The price of the bottle $150- also split six ways- was pretty hefty for a beer, but I'd say it was worth the experience.

As it happens I had suggested that weekend for the tasting because it corresponded with my 3 year mark on Beer Advocate and was the 250th beer that I reviewed there- so that made it even more awesome.

We also drank a bottle of Sinner's Blend 2009, from Lost Abbey Brewing which was incredible and ended up being in my top 10 beers ever. It was a sour ale with the perfect amount of sourness for my taste.

Here's my Utopias review, many thanks to Chad for organizing and hosting:

Appearance- 4oz of ruby amber liquid into my Duvel glass. I was expecting a much thicker liquid, but no it's pretty thin, not much viscosity. Obviously no head or lacing (with no carbonation) but it's got some legs- thin trails going down the swirls of the glass.

Smell- Whoa careful where you whiff this beer- the smell is strong. For all the beers I've hated on for not having a strong enough smell this makes up for it all. My first impression is brandy. Then I smell brown sugar, dark cherries, dark sweet sweet orange, maple syrup, toffee. Incredibly complex. There is also tons of alcohol- burns off my nose hairs and stops me from just smelling it for the rest of the night.

Taste- In the taste there's more sweetness and fruit compared to the smell which had more liqueur, at least in my first sips. Maple syrup comes to the fore. Candied orange peel, tobacco, juicy vanilla bean pods, blueberries. I'm noticing the tobacco more and more, which gives it some Scotch notes. And like the smell the taste is incredibly complex.

Mouthfeel- Burn, obviously- it is 27%. I wish I could say that the alcohol is hidden but not really. The sweetness covers it up a bit but not to a great degree.

Overall- it's hard to rate this as a beer- more a liqueur. One of, if not the most complex beers I've ever had. Quite the special experience.