Today's beer is a bit of a popular one. Mad Elf from Hershey, Pennsylvania's Tröegs Brewing Company, a brewery that I quite enjoy but have yet to take a look at a beer from here on the blog. Mad Elf is an 11% ABV Belgian Style Strong Dark Ale brewed with honey and cherries. Mad indeed! This is what I like to see. A brewery going a bit outside the traditional seasonal box. Tröegs, it seems, has moved way outside of the box. To be fair though, this is certainly the time of year for 11% ABV beers. It finally feels like winter and I need a heart brew to fight off that chill. To the beer!
Mad Elf pours a particulate laden, which renders it quite hazy, beautiful deep scarlet in color. It's capped by a finger of dense foam that recedes pretty quickly to a thin but resilient rim.
I definitely get plenty of that cherry on the nose but that's certainly not it. There are also hints of plum, apple and berries. Belgian yeast notes mingle with a slight roastiness that adds a faint but very intriguing chocolatey note. Considering the rather hefty 11% ABV it's no real shocker that there are some boozy notes in here as well.
Mad Elf is extremely smooth and very creamy. It's quite full bodied but the carbonation imparts a bit of a lightness on each sip that keeps what could easily be a very big syrupy beer from getting bogged down. Spicy Belgian esters lead into a blast of fruity flavor. Plenty of tart cherry and apple notes. Mad Elf toes the line of being too sweet but never quite crosses it. Don't get me wrong, it's a very sweet beer, but it never gets to the point of being obnoxious or cloying. Also, somehow, the booziness is kept very well in check. it's very drinkable given the outlandish ABV.
I'm usually not a huge fan of fruit beers, or very sweet ones for that matter. But here, it all works. This isn't a beer I would want all the time. But now, at Christmas, it's pretty great. Rich, fruity, a bit insane, and altogether tasty.
HD
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