Coney Island/Shmaltz makes some great beers so I am excited to try this one. I’m a touch skeptical of the need for a full 10% here, but we’ll see.
Poured this 650 mL into the Tucher Weizen glass to give a lovely copper colored body and a high, tight, dense and fluffy, off-white head. Lace is good as is the clarity. Looks good.
Nose produces the nice alcohol and marzipan bread notes that one would expect. So far, so good, and then…
..the tastes simply do NOT deliver in the way they should. Frankly we get an alcoholic, peppery, metallic, licorice, bitter mess. The coinage feel is VERY prevalent and the malt (while present) is totally overwhelmed by a burning, bitter metal taste. The metallic nature lingers too. The taste may be down to too great a hop presence in a style that doesn’t require it. Either way it sits badly.
Mouthfeel is just about right for the style, with a rich, slightly creamy feel to it.
On the crucial aspects of taste and drinkability, this beer fails quite badly. On the arguably less important attributes of appearance, smell and mouthfeel it does very well. It’s a paradox, but ultimately the tastes let this beer down badly.
I have confidence that a brewer as accomplished as Shmaltz can put his right, but this beer needs quite a bit of work in at least a couple of important areas.