Looks and tastes like Ft. Collins out of the ashes smoked belgian… a lot like it. Its also similar to Ft. Collins other smokebeer Z Lager in a similar weirdness way. Less smoke in this than the two I just mentioned, however, I’ll dare to say that this is the better beer. All smokepower factors clock in between 2 and 3 except for the overall happiness metric which should creep up a bit higher, although we’ll hafta wait for the calculations to come through to know for sure (come back soon to see the full review). Its great that smokepower has found its way all over the beer spectrum, but rather than differentiate your product by pulling some random brew out of your hat (say belgian) and then wave the smoke wand over it and voila, the master brewer is a genius and Epic has garaunteed SBM will try their beer once, but why not make something we’d like to try twice. Overall happiness has to land solidly above 5 to get some repeat business from our group. This one misses the mark. You’ll find taste sweetness convince you its okay, barley flavors remind you of barley wines, 9.6% alcohol reward you for loving beer, and a hint of smokiness push you away from this beer and towards a smokebeer made by someone who wants to do one thing well. Overall happiness …

For more info, have a look at:

http://www.epicbrewing.com/the-beers/exponential-series/item/623-smoked-and-oaked