I could see tonight's rare beer keg tapping coming from a mile away. It was Avery's Samael's. Good God-A-Mitey.
Who the fuck is Samael? Well, Samael is an important archangel in Talmudic and post-Talmudic lore. (Are you with me now???) He is a figure who is an accuser, seducer, and destroyer. (Not to be confused with the Keymaster or the Gatekeeper.) He has been regarded as both good and evil (I can totally see that). He is considered in legend both a member of the heavenly host (with often grim and destructive duties) and a fallen angel, equal with Satan and the chief of the evil spirits. And he makes one hellova beer.
Samael's is part of an Avery Brewing Company triumvirate: The Beast, Mephistopheles' and Samael's. All uber-high alcohol content, and I'm sure, all delicious.
But at the Saucer tonight they were tapping just the Samael's. But not until 5pm. The Reverend, Joe and I met up for the tapping, but we were early. So we had a warm-up beer. At a few seconds before five, our awesome beergoddess, Maggie, brought us each a Samael's. I was still working on my 512 ONE, but Joe and the Rev dove in.
The funniest bit was when the Rev simply sucked off some of the foam and immediately gave the brew two OMFGs (apparently his new scale for measuring the enjoyability of a beer), then said, "fuck it," and went in two-fisted!
(Sorry if the pic is a little blurry. I'd been drinking.)
Samael's is super caramel-y with plenty of vanilla and floral notes. It's also got a raisin or some other sweet fruit in the background. Not to mention a whopping 16.45% abv. That's not a typo. 16.45%. GodJesus.
It is an amazing beer. Sweet. Floral. Creamy. Decadent. Would be good with some toffee. Don't think you could drink more than two and not HAVE to take a nap. Hell. It's taken me about two hours to write this post.
Oh, my holy fucking god. That is one fine beer. I really want to taste the other two, now. Perhaps we'll have to have a private tasting.
This beer is evil...but in a really, really good way.
