Hey! Fatso!
Written: Jun 20 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Huge dose of pure pale malt character; not at all cloying.
Cons: Seasonal, somewhat intimidating to the unready
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| beerfly's Full Review: Victory St. Boisterous Hellerbock |
You people... are in trouble.
I understand that the sales of Victory's St. Boisterous Hellerbock are not rising; in fact, they were down a bit this year. Now, I know I've done my part, and Brother ricknrob has obviously been holding down his end, but there must be some slackers out there who just aren't drinking enough!
Are you brain-damaged? Gustatorily challenged? Is it possible that you've lost your beer reason? Say it ain't so!
Because this is The Fat Beer. I don't mean any pseudo-hip misspelled "Phat Beer," either, I mean this is The Fat Beer. St. Boisterous is roly-poly with pale malt, dripping with it. This is a beer that looked at the menu down at the Malt Shoppe and said "Yeah, I'll take that, and keep it coming, baby." You'll hear mega-brew drinkers whining about "those Raspberry Nut Crunch Foo-foo Microbeers." Ha. St. Boisterous is St. Belushi, crushing those weak-bodied cans of Bud and Coors Light (Light? Light?) against its forehead (Did I mention that it is one fat forehead?).
Fat head. Yeah, go ahead, say it, St. B loves it!!!! Fat Head! A towering creamy-white spume of head that lasts the whole way down. Coppery body, brassy and sassy. Ain't nothing lean about this machine.
Bouquet? Aroma? Hell no, this boy's got smell. And it smells like a torn open fresh loaf of good dense white bread, cool but still moist, with just a little bit of orange marmalade spread on it. You can smell the alcohol, too, and it's no lie; this beer's fat in every direction. It's a big malty, beery smell, like a brewery mashing a big batch right under your nose. CAUTION: Beer At Work.
Fit it in your mouth. So much malt it goes estery on you, malt overdrive, a maltillation overthruster effect. You might be looking at that white head, that coppery, brassy color, and looking over your shoulder at the calendar and thinking, maibock! Wrong, sucker. It ain't no kind of pseudo-excuse for American over-hopping, this is a pure blonde bock, a malt-mama that never gives a hop an even break. There's so much malt I even get an almost citric tang out of it, an effect I call "curdled malt" that I've found in a number of hugely malty, high alcohol beers like this.
Bring on your fattest doublebock. Odds-on the Fat Boy will match or exceed the fullness in the mouth. This is chewy, yet the pale malt keeps it reasonably light. The finish is cleaned up by the alcohol, an ethanol afterburner that tweaks a light sweetness into an upward taper that will light the fuse for the next big fat gulp.
I expect better next year. Get out there, you people in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, and even you folks in Delaware. Find St. Boisterous and get a fat mouthful. You'll thank me, and my fat buddy Saint B.
Forget Light. Get Fat.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
beerfly
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Member: Lew Bryson
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Reviews written: 88
Trusted by: 82 members
About Me:
One bourbon, one Scotch, one beer, eh? I'll take Kentucky Spirit, Scapa, and HopDevil.
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