What a difficult bottle to photograph - what with all that silver foil lettering. This is the 12% version of the Aventinus I reviewed back here in February 2006. It has shown up in Ontario as part of the LCBO's winter warmer seasonal release and at $3.95 or so for 500 ml it is a steal as The Bar Toweller discussion shows.

Teeming tan foam giving off a great wall of yeastiness recedes to a tin rim over cloudy mahogany ale. In the mouth this is concentrate of beer. There is slightly yogurty milkiness, Riesling-like mineral, warmth, nutmeg, clove, a fleeting hint of cherry and cocoa, banana cream, beer broth, heat and, in the end, a wee furnace in the belly. Clearly a beer needing respect given that each bottle has as much strength as 2/3s of a bottle of table wine, I am going to try to get some more for pork shoulder soaking. If I had my own wooden firkin for aging beer, I would load it up with this stuff and leave it for a few months. Gotta get that firkin.

Three percent of BAers can't handle the truth.