Typically, this style of beer doesn’t hold rank in my “favorites” category, but I was pretty excited to drink it.  It has been a long time since I last had this beer.  I vaguely recall picking it up shortly after I discovered the world of beer outside of canned pilsner.  I am sure back then the little dangling white plastic ram on the bottle is what enticed me into buying it.  Anyhow, the taste has since vanished from my memory.

Appearance:  The beer pours with a thick head that dissipated quicker than I’d expected…not much lacing on the inside of my glass.  It is not quite black–brownish read in color–and pretty translucent.  Swishing it a little I could tell it was not as thick as I’d expected.

Smell:  I think this brew makes fragrance discernment easy for the untrained nose since the wafting ingredients are strong and distinct.  You can easily pick up the roasted malts.  There is strong irony smell.  Caramel/mocha/coffee/nuttiness is very noticeable from the malts.  There is also a very distinct fruit smell; noticeably, cherries.  Hmmmm…this description sounds like candy!

Taste:   Thank goodness it doesn’t taste like candy.  I am most definitely not a sweet tooth, and overtly sweet beers aren’t my favorite.  It was quite smooth in my mouth.  It was quite velvety and not too bubbly.  The initial flavor I noticed was that caramel/coffee taste, probably because it was the forefront smell on my mind.  This flavor was immediately washed away by the strong malty/winey flavor.  Swishing in my mouth, I noticed again picked up on the fruit flavor.  I was convinced there are cherry elements, and almost tasted a grapeish flavor.  Celebrator washes down with an amazingly delightful bitterness, a bitterness quite different from the last two hoppy beers we drank (Sam Adams’ Halertau and Nosferatu).  When it was all said and done I was left with a caramely/coffeish after taste.

Celebrator hit the spot last night; so much so, I think I’ll indulge in a couple more tonight!