Woo Hoo! A video review. Hopefully they get better than this one in the future, but it is a good start. I need to keep the camera off the table so it doesn’t bounce. Anyway….I think for at least right now I will type out the normal review because not every one loves video and I am greedy and want the search traffic too.

New Belgium Brewery’s 1554 Enlightened Black Ale

The Pour

On the pour you get a good head, about 2 fingers of head of a creamy color. It is black, but you can find a little light coming through that gives of an amber bit of color.

The Nose

The nose if very biscuity much like the malts you find on New Belgium’s Fat Tire (review). In the video I picked up something else that I described as hoppy, but that isn’t quite right. I need to work on my vocabulary.

The Palate

Soy Sauce soy sauce soy sauce. I am not sure about the chocolate flavor that New Belgium claims, if it is there it is super subtle and would be more like a bittersweet cooking chocolate than anything. I found a little bit of a coffee flavor in there, but am stuck on the gross salty soy sauce taste that dominants the palate.

I was reading my book Tasting Beer last night and one identifiable flavor your taste buds pick up on is called umami and in beer you can often find it if the beer has been aged, but I am not sure this is the case. My guess would be that the brewer added salt to enhance the beers flavors, but on my palate it backfired.

If you bought a Folly Pack give it a shot, otherwise steer clear of this one.

The Rating

2.5 out of 5

Other Stuff

We are running a beer bracket tournament with Old Chicago Pizza in Merrillville and Champaign starting March 16th so be sure to check that out and to come back here and vote. Tomorrow we will be at Brickworks Brewery in Hobart doing a tasting with their Brewmaster so come and enjoy it with us.

Related posts:

1. Upland Brewery’s Schwarz Black Lager Hello everybody and welcome back to the Brew Review! Back...
2. New Belgium Brewery’s Fat Tire Fat Tire is uber popular right now.  6 months ago...
3. The Saint Lewis Brewery Schlafly Brand Dry Hopped APA I left the region, that is what we call this...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.