Beer Review: Kenai River Gummi Bear Beer

Serving Type: Free sample sent from the brewer. Was a draft-only release and was canned for shipping.

ABV: 9.2 percent

Appearance: The highly anticipated Gummi Bear Beer had a deep gold tone to its body. It also had a tad of a hazy character to it, due to the yeast content. After all, it is a Belgian Tripel. It also features a slightly fizzy and white head. The can it came in was a classic, as its title was simply written in permanent marker.

Smell: I got two key things from smelling this beer. A strong aroma of boozy alcohol and something that was almost buttery. It's almost like this brew fermented in the can during shipping, which wouldn't be a surprise since there was a lot of sugar put into this. A very interesting balance.

Taste: For the most part, the beer's taste featured the alcohol and the butter I sensed in the smell. There was also a strong helping of sugary sweetness. As there was plenty of Gummi Bears put into the brewing process, there wasn't a distinctive fruit flavor for any particular Gummi Bear. The alcohol and the intense sweetness might be unbearable if not for the taste of butter and yeast being there to balance things out. With the butter  and yeast flavors, this beer's flavor seems extremely adventurous.

Overall Rating: 

I waited a good while for this beer to finally get to me. I was very excited to finally try a beer with actual Gummi Bears brewed into it. I loved the use of drastic, but still balanced flavors in this beer. Keep in mind that this isn't the most sessionable of beers, given its ABV, but is a fun drink for one or two glasses. This was a limited-release by Kenai River Brewing and was draft-only.