22 oz bottle, $6.99 from Green’s, Greenville, SC, USA.
Pour is a bright, golden-orange body that sits underneath a rocky head with great retention.
Nose gives quite a lot of syrupy, sugar alcohol and a touch of the hops.
Tastes are quite a subtle combination of Saaz like bitterness and alcohol which has a slight warming effect. The aftertaste emphasizes both quite well.
Smooth in the mouth with no hint of the cloying nature that I was anticipating given the style and the alcohol. Ice cold this beer is feverishly easy to drink but as it warms it comes into an area that I think it is supposed to sit in. It does have a high alcohol presence and quite a noticeable degree of hop bitterness, especially in the finish. For those reasons I would say that at least in terms of the way it drinks (and ignoring formal style descriptions), this beer is basically an Imperial Pils. In fact, I was trying to place where I thought I had tasted this combo before and it was easy to remember – Rogue Imperial Pils and Sam Adams Imperial Pils.
In summary, it’s an Imperial Pilsner and in that respect I am very curious as to how this compares to Krampus.