Poured out the beer was a darkish, cloudy brown which almost felt like it had a viscosity reminiscent of a really soft toffee. It had no real head to speak off and the carbonation was a little on the low side for my liking, but I think spot on for what the brewer was trying to achieve with this kind of beer - too much carbonation and the sweet-bitter combination might just have fizzled out without much effect. The aroma immediately made me think of a burnt-toffee flavor which was quite surprising as I was expecting massive floral and other varieties of hop profile.
Even though it is rated at some ridiculous 1254 IBU's I find it amazing how it is not as extremely bitter as I expected and how the brewer managed to find just the right balance down the middle - not letting the sweetness linger for too long and also keeping tabs on the bittering so as not to put you off your next sip. Don't get me wrong thought this is an intensely bitter beer for sure, but there is much more to it than just something that will make you pull your face in a funny way. To be honest this is probably something that I can only have one of at a time - and be sure to make this your last pint for the evening as anything after this will taste completely bland!
This is quite a big beer in the sense that it packs an 11.5% punch, although it is not very forth-coming and will go almost unnoticeable until you find it proudly printed on the label giving more meaning to the tag-line "Afrika is nie vir sissies nie"
Many people would argue that to enjoy a beer like this you would need some crazy spicy food at some crazy party, but for me there was no better way than listening to some old records, savoring the amazing view of the Cape Coastline in the perfect Cape summer weather whilst sipping and tripping on this extreme beer.
Well done Triggerfish, epic-after-work-beer 1 and mundane-Thursday-ruined-by-work 0!