Action Figures &Their Beers: A Devastatingly Good Ale

by Beedo Sookcool
on 2012-07-16, 13:31:41

THE LEVELLER

Read the following three all-caps words and imagine they are being snarled by Arthur Burghardt and run through an echoy Vocoder: PREPARE FOR INEBRIATION!!! Aptly named, this beer from Springhead Brewery floored me. I chose it originally because its dramatic name would go well with the Constructicon colossus, Devastator. (Whichever iteration you prefer. I’m using the Baysplosions Movie and Powerlinx versions, since I never had the original, and can’t seem to find my MicroMaster version.) And when I tasted it, I got a welcome surprise in how much I enjoyed it. I mean, I really enjoyed it. Not since Admiral’s Ale have I gotten such an unexpected dose of such high-quality beer from a desire just to fill a space in the column and stretch it out another week. But I could happily drink this stuff until I couldn’t walk straight.

The blurbs on the bottle talk about it being a “dark smooth beer with a rich aroma and taste of burnt toffee,” “Brewed in Robin Hood country,” “brewed with traditional English ingredients but in the style of Belgian Trappist beers,” “lovingly brewed since 1990 with only the finest ingredients to ensure that each bottle is as good as the last,” and “also delicious served chilled.” It’s 4.8% ABV, and half a liter of delicious. Its “intense burnt toffee finish,” while perhaps too intense and burnt for some, perfectly brings to my mind a nice crème brulée with a thick armour coating of crunchy, melted-to-glass, blowtorch-blasted sugar. In beer form. With somehow the merest hint of chocolate in there, too. So it’s also reminiscent of a Cadbury’s Crunchie bar. In beer form. Awesome. And that's not a word I use lightly. I was actually awed by this ale. If you find any, by all means try it.

Drink this if you also like: Brooklyn Chocolate Stout, Chocolate Tom, any other comfortingly confection-tasting or “dessert” beer.