beer talk: bear republic crazy ivan

since chauz has me bloggin', might as well steal a gimmick

ok, so, i am totally at the dirty truth right now, which is a pretty good beer bar (but not the best) in the area, and i'm all 'oh, matt, let's try something new.' so, the crazy ivan's on tap here. i'm having a glass right now.

this is... an unusual beer. it's classified in the belgian category... i'm not sure that's appropriate. it's got a nice amber color to it, light head that vanishes pretty quick, no distinct smell to speak of. The taste.... the taste is hard to describe. i don't know how this works, exactly, but it somehow manages to go through three phases. here are three seperate sips, with an attempt to quantify each:

phase one: kind of like a red ale, i want to say? it's a pretty nice taste, some good hops in here, not too bitter, and it would be great if it stayed there

phase two: i'm going to blame this one on some kind of late release malt. about three seconds after swallowing, you get this feeling like your tounge got hit with a hammer. comes with a slight numbing sensation

phase three: once the numb's gone, you're left with something that i imagine would taste like what would happen if you slammed a pilsner immediatley after a porter. there's some mild stuff going on, but it's hard to tell.

all of this is kind of confusing. i mean, it's neat, but it's not exactly good. you should try it once. that's probably enough, i think.