Thanks to a really good buddy from Netherlands for sending this beer out to me! Today's sampling is Bavaria 8.6 Original Intense Blond Beer (Lager) from the Netherlands. This beer is now available in some parts of Canada - I saw it on its own display about 15 feet away from a meat cooler display showcasing my family's beef at an IGA in Montreal, and it was featured at Flatlander's Beer Festival in Winnipeg recently.Bavaria 8.6 comes in three varieties - Original Intense Blond (this one), Intense Red, and Extreme Intense Strong Beer.. but I also noticed they had a few others like an India Pale Lager as well.
Original Intense Blond is an intense version of Bavaria's original full-bodied lager, full of character and 8.6% ABV
Appearance: Rich golden straw body with a nice frothy white thick head on top. The head diminishes pretty gradually leaving a nice sprinkling of foam all over the glass as it's getting consumed. Lots of carbonation in the body, reminiscent of a typical macro lager.
Aroma: At 8.6% I was expecting very sweet, too malty of a smell but it's not bad so far. It's definitely sweet, notes of honey, straw and a slight grassiness from the hops. More welcoming than I was expecting so far. I can't really compare much to European beer but I was expecting something similar to Labatt Blue/Bleue Dry's 8 to 10.1% ABV line of malt lagers, but this was definitely much lighter (thankfully).
Taste: The thing with an 8.6% lager is that in order to get to that ABV it has to get sweeter and yeah, it's definitely got a tad bit of a malt liquor vibe to it. It's got a bit of a burn at the very end, a great deal of straw, a slight bitterness that reminds me a bit of Heineken's green bottle skunk to it.
Overall Thoughts: Definitely 8.6% ABV judging by the burn it get. I might have been their target market for this beer fifteen years ago but this kind of beer doesn't appeal to me anymore. That being said, it's definitely smoother than Labatt's Blue Dry series... I don't know how I could handle 10.1% 1.1L jugs of it back in the day.
http://www.86beer.com
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