Utah Brewery Map

Monday, March 16, 2009

Hell's Keep

With out a doubt Jennifer Talley has turned Squatters into the place in Utah for authentic Belgian style ales. Her latest offering is Hell's Keep a Belgian Style Strong Ale. Beer dorks and artist have been waiting moths for this one. Some for the beer itself and others for the "subjective" label that won the label design contest.

Personally I saw a lot of good artwork done for this label, but William Swartzfager artwork really looks nice on the bottle.

Poured into a tulip: a lightly hazy honey/orange with a dense 3 fingers of white foam, which fade into a moderate sized cap. The nose is lemony coupled with dusty-oak and a wild yeastiness.
The taste starts with dry apricot and pear followed by spicy malty grains. The end is lemony with notes of straw and wheat. The finish is nice and dry with a lite champagne like carbonation.
This beer is very crisp and refreshing. Just so easy going down and incredibly light on the palate. The the 7% ABV doesn't have any burn and is well hidden.

The only problem is I can see with this beer is it's deceptive ABV. it's so lite and unnoticeable It'll catch up with before you know it. Hell's Keep is bottle conditioed and served in a nice wax dipped champagne style bottle.

Another rock-solid offering from Squatters, probably the best to date. If this one finds an audience(which it should) we could see it distributed state-wide. But for now you will only be able to enjoy it at Squatters Downtown and Park City Pubs starting tomorrow 3/17. Cheers!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awesome. I'll be drinking one tomorrow hopefully. The official release isn't till then right? And 750 ml bottles?

Mikey said...

Yup 750's & It's available tomorrow. St Patty's Day. Your gunna love it!

Anonymous said...

It was delicious! Thanks Squatters.

Ed said...

A little write-up in City Weekly this week:

Hell's Keep & Tony Caputo's

Guess I'd better get my ass in gear and go try it, eh?