He'Brew Jewbelation Sweet Sixteen

16th Anniversary Celebration Ale
Brewed with 16 Malts, 16 Hops, and Soaring to 16% Alc

3.6

311 reviews

Clifton Park, United States

Community reviews

2.9 Gross bottle of diabetes. Thanks. I guess. Lots of sugar in the nose. Teriyaki. Just straight licorice and boost. Stop. Just. Stop.

4.2 Bottle from my Secret Summer Santa 2015, robinvboyer, thank you very much. Pours dark brown color, dark beige head. Aroma of coffee, raisins, dark chocolate, alcohol, roasted malt. Taste is sweet, coffee, dark berries, plums, vanilla, warming alcohol, tobacco, cherry, wine. Really full of different tastes. Nice coffee finish, bit hoppy.

4.1 Bottle. Pours black with tan head. Nose and taste is big bourbon and vanilla. Strong.

3.0 Thanks Darrell. Dark brown coffee body with a small collar. Aromas of malt, booze, cocoa, caramel, hops, chocolate. Sweet and syrupy. Big time booze presence and hot finish. Bold flavor, if you like being assaulted. Best split several ways.

3.8 Bottle. Pours a black color with a small tan head. Has a roasted malty licorice and chocolate aroma. Roasted malty chocolate, licorice and coffee flavor. Has a roasted malty chocolate licorice and coffee finish.

3.4 Bottle. Pours opaque black-brown with a small tan head. Aroma of caramel, chocolate, molasses, raisins and alcohol. Flavor was sweet with chocolate, dark fruit, molasses, toffee, alcohol and light vanilla. Thick oily texture, full body, warming dry finish.

3.7 It poured a dark brown color with a tan head. The aroma was of roasted malts, some dried fruits, alcohol, spices and caramel. The taste was similar to the aroma with chocolate, more alcohol, caramel and sweet fruits. Some alcohol burn on the finish. Different.

3.8 Bottle. Pours a dark brown with small beige head that diminishes quickly. Roast chocolate malt and smoke aroma. Thin mouthfeel with a sweet roast and rich chocolate with light dry finish. Good

4.1 22 ounce bottle into snifter, bottled in 9/2012. Pours dense pitch black color with a 2 finger dense dark tan head with good retention, that reduces to a small cap that lingers. Light spotty soapy lacing clings around the glass, with some light streaming carbonation. Aromas of big chocolate, cocoa, molasses, toast, toffee, dark bread, raisin, prune, leather, tobacco, herbal, and roast/toasted earthiness. Very nice aromas with good balance and complexity of dark/roasted/bready malt, dark fruit, and earthy hop notes; with good strength. Taste of huge dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, molasses, toffee, toast, dark bread, raisin, prune, leather, tobacco, light char, herbal, and roast/toasted earthiness. Fair amount of roast/char/herbal bitterness on the finish; with lingering notes of dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, molasses, toffee, toast, dark bread, raisin, prune, leather, tobacco, light char, and roast/toasted earthiness on the finish for a while. Damn nice complexity and balance of dark/roasted/bready malt, dark fruit, and earthy hop flavors; with a nice roasted bitterness/sweetness balance and no cloying sweetness after the finish. Light-medium carbonation and very full bodied; with a very creamy, slick, and lightly syrupy/chalky mouthfeel that is nice. Alcohol is well hidden with only a moderate warming present after the finish. Overall this is an excellent strong ale. All around great complexity and balance of dark/roasted/bready malt, dark fruit, and earthy hop flavors; and smooth to sip on slowly for the huge ABV. A very enjoyable offering.

4.0 Pours a very dark black with very little light coming through the edges. With a decent tan head that disappears quickly. Aroma is roasted malts, alcohol, chocolate, bourbon, vanilla, and licorice. Flavour is roasted malts, chocolate, chocolate syrup, alcohol, bourbon, lots of sweetness and a light dryness. For a 16 point beer this is well balanced and pretty easy to drink!

3.9 Pours an opaque inky black with a foamy brown head that dissipates quickly. Aroma of roasted malts, bourbon, vanilla, booze, toffee, caramelized sugar and a nice tickling of the nose. Taste is roasted malts, bourbon, alcohol, caramelized sugar, vanilla and rich chocolate in the background. Big intense flavors, sweet boozy and an alcohol bite but all held in a pretty good balance. Nice winter sipper.

3.7 Bottle after cellaring for 2 years. Opaque black/brown with a small tan head and very good lacing. Aroma of sweet roasted malt, caramel, raisins, a little molasses, alcohol and a touch of chocolate. Taste of sweet roasted malt, vanilla, toffee, raisins, molasses and a hint of coffee. The alcohol was partly hidden with the malt, but it was felt. Full body and medium carbonization.

4.0 Aged this in the basement for two years. Opaque black with quickly dissipating brown head. Syrupy full body with high carbonation. Aroma: heavy malt, silage, smooth alcohol, figs, molases, prunes, soy sauce. Taste: sweet charred fruit cake, rum. Cross between barleywine and imperial stout, with alcohol stregth of both. Not quite hot, but burns the throat. Would be nice if the bottle had more description beyond ABV and "16 malts and 16 hops".

3.7 Thanks to Ron for stowing this away for a couple years then producing it to share today. It aged well. Malt forward, but plenty of hops to balance and provide relief from the assault of malt. Deep plum nose, and plenty of malty notes. Nice complexity. Syrupy mouthfeel. Much better as it warms. Some chocolate/stouty notes were coming through late. Nice.

3.9 Bottle, shared with Grippitis and Mike while watching Oregon destroy Arizona State. Viscous oily black pour, low but thick brown head. Intensely malty aroma, dark fruits and booze. Sweet, rich flavours of prunes, birch syrup, soy sauce, milk chocolate, figs, spicy rye, molasses bread. Warming but not harsh. Incredibly rich-- a sharing brew for sure. I’m so amazed that these guys can turn out a drinkable, complex 16% ABV beer! Wow.

4.5 APPEARANCE - super black with healthy brown head. NOSE - barley wine style, a bit of alcohol scent. FLAVOR - Rich and and complex, dark roasty flavors that blend together seamlessly. Would never be able to tell it’s 16%. NOTES - Outstanding beer, with tremendous flavor depth.

3.6 Bottle to snifter Black currant, plum liqueur, resin, light coffee notes, treacle, oats, booze. Silky black, thin bubbly tan head that disappears in 5 seconds, a little effervescence. Taste is coffee, semi-sweet chocolate, loads of malt, plum, and a satisfying bitterness. It’s light bodied and a little thin and the alcohol really boosts my salivary glands to make it feel even thinner.

3.7 750ml bottle 14.5% ABV (as marked on bottle) RBC Plaza LCBO Outlet (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) February 26, 2013 The beer pours a solid dark brown, syrupy in nature with a creamy light brown head. Aroma is alcohol, caramel, and molasses. Mouthfeel is full bodied with mild carbonation. Flavour is over the top sweet and the alcohol is definitely noticeable. Dark fruit and roasted malt round out the flavour. Definitely a beer for sharing.

3.5 Bottle. Pours dark brown tan head. Nose/taste of raisin, dark fruit, molasses, cocoa and deep roasted oats. Full body. Sweet as expected.

4.2 When a beer’s ABV is in double digits it can be a little intimidating to drink, especially when that beer comes in a 22oz bottle. Shmaltz Brewing is known for making huge beers for their anniversary every fall and they always play a numbers game, so it’s not surprising that their 16th Anniversary ale would be made from 16 different malts, 16 different hops and weigh in at 16% ABV. I’m just glad I waited until their 18th anniversary to try it. I split a 22oz bottle with three friends. We each poured it into tulip glasses. (I cannot remember how, where or when I got this bottle, though!). Appearance: Opaque, stout-like black. Pours to an amazingly large, dark brown, frothy head which retains and laces pretty well. Smell: Pungent aroma of black licorice, chocolate syrup, sour grape, and some alcohol. Taste: A beer this strong blurs the styles lines for sure. He’Brew Jewbelation Sweet Sixteen could be considered an imperial stout as it has most of the qualities usually found in the style: almost sickly sweet amount of black licorice and chocolate, along with confectionery notes of raw toffee and caramel syrups. There’s a distinct sour grape as well, which is often found in many of my favorite imperial stouts. What it lacks, however, is a presence of roasted malt and coffee. Perhaps that’s due to the fact this bottle was two years old at the time and they had faded. The hops have also faded a bit as this beer is not especially bitter, though there is subtle dryness at the crest of the swig. The finish is equally sweet, almost sickly sweet with a slightly cloying aftertaste. Personally, I think it’s delicious, but then again I have a predilection towards sweet brews. The alcohol is quite mellow, which is nice, though there’s just a faint hint of vanilla character akin to bourbon or rum. I don’t see much more to be gained by aging this any longer, so if you have one stashed now would be a good time to break it out. Drinkability: I was fully expecting He’Brew Jewbelation Sweet Sixteen to be flavored rubbing alcohol, but it drinks like any other imperial stout. The mouthfeel is, not surprisingly, thick and viscous, though calm with a smooth texture. It definitely leaves a sticky sensation on the tongue that’s a little cloying. However, there’s no raw booziness for a 16% ABV brew, which is nice. An experienced drinker could probably handle an entire bottle himself, though I’d recommend sharing with friends since a short pour is satisfying enough.

3.7 22oz bottle - Everything plus the kitchen sink and it definitely could have been a train wreck. Lots of alcohol in the aroma, figs/dates, dark chocolate, and raisins. Flavor is SWEET! Roasted malts, dark chocolate, molasses-like bitterness, brown-sugar mixed with alcohol. Pretty heavy!

3.7 10/10/2014: He’Brew Sweet Sixteen... Really deep amber-brown color that’s opaque with a non-existent head. Aroma is boozy with prune, caramel, and more alcohol. Flavor is amazingly good; it’s rich, malty and somewhat sweet, but not cloying. there’s a sneaky hint of dark chocolate in the finish along with some char. Medium-full body, milky texture, smooth and slightly creamy. This beer is so amazing good. I’ve been wanting to drink this for a long time and I’m happy that that time has finally come. This is a great beer to share and enjoy. 22 fl. oz. bottle.

4.2 Looks darker than expected...brown side of black. Very complex aroma of licorice, chocolate, burnt malts, caramel. A little mocha and bitter hops in the flavor as well. Nice sipper. For the ridiculously high abv, this is really smooth and while pleasantly warming, not hot til it reaches room temp. I’m surprised...these seem to keep getting better. I’ll be searching out another."

3.8 Aroma is sweet raisin and toffee. The taste is much the same, but with some coffee bitterness and a lot of booze. It’s much less boozy than you’d expect for a 16% beer (tipping my hat to the brewers for pulling off a good beer at that ABV), but still more boozy than I’d like. This tastes much more like an imperial stout than a strong ale to me. If it was a strong ale, I’d probably give it a 16, but as an imperial stout I’d give it a 14 given the great stouts out there. I split the difference at 15/20.

4.5 Bottle from Pacific Liquor: Poured a dark blackish brown color with a thick formation of foam head which stuck around for few minutes before eventually dying down. Aroma is deep with a boozy whiff of alcohol that has minor traces of cognac or bourbon whiskey. The drink delivers a lethal dosage of boozy alcohol yet has been gracefully matched with a heaping serving of sweet syrupy malts so that this doesn’t take like hard liquor. Extremely smooth considering the high ABV, I just don’t foresee how HeBrew will be able to keep this anniversary series up?

3.6 Pours a brownish color with off-white head. Boozy! Even on the nose, there is booze, and malts. Follows onto the palate. Finishes with more booze.

4.1 @zebf 2014 - Strong aroma of roasted malt and alcohol. It’s very thick and rich. Complex flavour, heavy on the bitter roasted malts but with some hop notes in the background too. Warming.

3.5 Rating #1400. At Zeebra Beer Festival, THX to everybody sharing today’s beers. APPEARANCE: clear dark brown beer, small unstable beige head. NOSE: alcohol, sweet, oké. TASTE: alcohol, sweet, fruity, but too much alcohol in general.

3.8 chocolate..vanilla..coconut..reminds me a lot of the 15th anniversary which was an unexpected treat..pretty much the same everything in this version..but with a slightly higher abv kick..quite enjoyable booziness without being overdone..liked 15 a bit more from what i recall..

4.1 This is like a big soup of tastes and smells. Lots of licorice and toffee with slight coffee and chocolate tones. You can tell that they used 16 malts. Is hoppy without being over the top. The malts and hops really compliment each other. Would live to drink another.