Beer Review: Melange 8

Reviewing Melange 8 from The Bruery out of Placentia, California.

Score: 84

2013 vintage bottle served in an Upland snifter glass and enjoyed on 07/03/13.
Appearance: The color of the beer is a yellowish-green-brown caramel color that kind of looks like a melange of the colors on the label. Pours a thin ring around the glass of off-white head. Poor lacing, OK retention. 2.75/5

Smell: Coffee is the first thing I notice upfront, but it is ultimately not the most prominent or lasting element of the aroma. Immediately after the coffee is sweet caramel, sweet vanilla, toffee and a little oakiness. Nice medley of sweet aromas with some coffee to balance. The coffee is not very roasty, but it is appealingly pleasant. 4/5

Taste: Tastes just like it smells with substantially less coffee and more sugary sweetness. Quite malty. Some alcohol warmth and a little booziness too. At first, I thought the barrel and malty sweet flavors made for a nice mix, but the sweetness really layers and grows on you in a negative way. This beer quickly borderlines cloying. 3.25/5

Mouthfeel: Full bodied, quite low carbonation. Unnecessarily sweet, but this is The Bruery. Sticky on palate. 3.75/5

Overall: Even by The Bruery's standards, this beer was a sweet mess. There was not nearly enough roasty/bitter coffee to offset the overbearing sweetness of the brew, and none of the people present when this bottle was opened could finish more than a few ounces before giving up. It is not a bad beer, but it's one that gets undrinkably sweet as it layers, and nearly a third of this bottle was ultimately donated to the drain at the end of the night. If you own a bottle, I would recommend trading it away. I wish I had my forty bucks back.

Cost: $40 for a 750 ml bottle.