He'Brew Origin Pomegranate Ale

Brewed By: Shmaltz Brewing Company in Brooklyn, New York  

Purchased: 12oz bottle from the 2012 Holiday Gift Pack bought at Binny's in IL; 2012 

Style/ABV: American Strong Ale/Fruit Beer, 8.0%

Reported IBUs: ?

Continuing with the He'Brew 2012 Holiday Gift Pack...tonight we dabble with big, boozy pomegranate. About He'Brew:

He'Brew is part of the Shmaltz Brewing Company. The Shmaltz Brewing Company has two lines of beer: their He'Brew The Chosen Beer, and their Coney Island Craft Lagers. Shmaltz Brewing Company is a craft brewery based in San Francisco, California, founded by Jeremy Cowan in 1996. The company previously contract brewed most of their beer through the Mendocino Brewing Company, while operating a small brewery in Brooklyn, New York. After 16 years of having their beer contract brewed, the Shmaltz Brewing Company opened its own New York State microbrewery in Clifton Park, NY. The new location features a 50-barrel brewhouse, with 20,000 barrels of annual capacity, and began production April/May 2013, officially opening July 2013. The company is known for its innovative beer, eye-catching bottle artwork, and sense of humor. For more information, check out the Shmaltz website HERE. Don't be a schmuck!

If you roll over to the Origin page, you can see that this "Imperial Amber Ale," brewed with pomegranate juice, clocks in at a fairly big 8.0%. This one uses 2-Row, Caramel 30-40, Dark Crystal, Munich, Dark Munich, and Wheat malts; it also features Warrior, Centennial, Cascade, Willamette, Crystal, and Mt. Hood hops. Let's glass this up, and see how it stacks up.

He'Brew Origin Pomegranate Ale

This one pours a dark orange color, almost bordering on amber or brown. This one kicks up two finger's worth of bready, thick, orange-tinted head. In bright light, this one is a dark orange color, with a finger's worth of orange-tinted head that is hanging around nicely. There's a lot of carbonation in this, and the body is fairly murky.

There are a ton of hops on the nose of this, and if I was going at this blind, I might peg this as an Imperial IPA or Barleywine. I'm getting a ton of sticky pine, pine sap, orange, candied orange, fruit cake, alcohol-soaked-bread/cake, rum/brandy, and that really nice smoothed out American Barleywine aroma you get with aging. There's syrupy/sticky caramel-sugar as well, and hints of dark fruits. This maybe suggests dark fruits...but it mostly comes across as light, hoppy fruit aromas. 

In terms of taste, this takes the nose, and adds a layer of fruity grape/pomegranate/plum to the front palate. There's plenty of hop bitterness abound in this, and I'm getting some wood, hop astringency, pine, grass, and hints of citrus, and some grain towards the back end. In fact, the finish is kind of grainy and fusel-boozy, while the front is fruity and carbonated, and the middle is hoppy and earthy. 

Kind of a strange beast, this one can't decide if it wants to commit to being another pomegranate fruit beer, or if it wants to feature the fruit in tandem with some big hop kick. The Munich malts are an interesting choice as well...and come through in a big way that is reminiscent of an Autumn beer; lots of grain, toasted malt, and toast show up in this. This one is medium-full, with smooth carbonation, and starts fruity and refreshing up front, and finishes malty and dry. Palate depth is actually pretty good, and complexity is as well....hmm. Up front is carbonation and big pomegranate and dark fruits; this rolls into hops, light hop spice, and burgeoning toast, grain, and Munich malts; the back end is malty, boozy, and dry. I was expecting the hops to continue to grow, but you actually pick up more malts as you work your way through this.

Rating: Average 

I'm feeling a Strong Average on this. This is interesting, to say the least. There's nice fruit up front, nice hop kick in the middle...but man, that toasted malt and Munich kick grows in the back. It reminds me of an Oktoberfest or an Irish Red Ale...or a Bock even. I suspect this beer would feel right at home in the Autumn, especially with that boozy complexity and 8.0% worth of warming, which you definitely feel. This is actually a really interesting brew, and certainly not a bad beer. I'll have to sleep on this one, and definitely revisit it in the future. I'd pair this with a stew, or grilled brats, and Autumn weather. Seriously, this is an Autumn beer masquerading as a fruity little diddy. Not bad though. 

Random Thought: I watched A Serious Man this weekend...pretty dark stuff, but also pretty funny at times. The Coen Brothers know how to do dark comedy well, and they always put interesting characters on screen. The movie ends on a kind of ominous tone, and I liked that. If you haven't seen that one, check it out.