I’m not old
enough to have seen the old “Batman” series when it first ran in the
sixties. I am old enough, though, to have seen it in ubiquitous reruns
throughout the seventies. And of course, having seen it, nothing sticks in
my mind more than Burt Ward as Robin shouting such classic lines as, “Holy
atomic pile, Batman!”, “Holy haberdashery, Batman!”, and “Holy molar,
Batman!”.
That said, at this point you may ask, and rightly so, “Holy fermented malt
beverage, Bruguru! What does this have to do with beer?” Well, a lot really,
because I’m sure if good old Burt Ward were sitting here with me tonight
sampling a glass of Heavy Seas Holy Sheet Uber Abbey Ale, he would
take a sip and shout….
“Holy Sheet, Batman!”
Ahem. Ok, now that I have that out of my system, please allow me to regale
you with a tale of ale. Baltimore’s Clipper City Brewing created the Heavy
Seas line as an offering of big, bold, and generally potent brews intended
to take their respective styles to the extreme. In my experience, they have
succeeded more than they’ve missed, but to be honest there definitely have
been some misses along the way.
Not this time, though. Holy Sheet is in the vein of a Belgian styled dubbel,
albeit a Belgian style dubbel on steroids. It has a great complexity about
it, and it is a definitely a sipping beer perfect for a cold winter or cool
spring evening. Newly released for 2008 a month or so as I type, Holy Sheet
is also a better bargain than other beers in the Heavy Seas line at about
$8.49 a six-pack (compare that to the $6.99 I paid for just four bottles of
their Hang Ten Weizenbock.)
I pour my bottle of Holy Sheet Uber Abbey Ale into a bowl-shaped Belgian
beer glass to best appreciate its aroma and flavor. The beer pours to a
beautiful dark chestnut color with a very faint bubbly head formation and an
absolutely heavenly sweet nutty malty nose that is detracted from just a bit
by a meddlesome acetone aroma. The palate delivers wonderfully deep, dark
and delicious flavors of chocolate and raisin, prune and toasted nuts. I’m
also getting cotton candy, banana, and funky yeasty esters. It’s a bit
phenolic, too, in a band-aid sort of way.
The beer finishes with a good wallop of alcohol warmth to dry it out, and
not much in the way of hops, but that’s to be expected. They call this an
“uber abbey ale”, an uber dubbel really, that delivers some of the dark
chocolaty qualities of a dubbel at the strength (9%) of a tripel. It’s very
complex and delicious, and the fermentation flaws are the only thing keeping
it from being a 5-star brew.
And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.
*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For
reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.
(B)=Bottled
(D)=Draft