I'm a big fan of the zombie genre, as many of you know. Aside from my perennially in-the-works zombie novel (almost 100,000 words now!) I've played tons of zombie games and read zombie books (like Max Brooks' incredible World War Z.) I like the label a lot, especially like the DC roller derby girl with a plate of brains and a DC flag shirt. Oddly enough, the zombies on the bottle rather look like the zombies from the addictive Plants vs. Zombies game, sans traffic cone:
Like all the other 3 Stars offerings, it comes topped with a muselet cork. However, it has NO "pop" sound, which is new.
It lethargically pours deep brown, almost black, with no real head. When provoked, i.e. poured not on the side of the glass but in the middle, it does puff up a little bit with a brownish-tan head. It's probably the darkest head on a beer I have seen.
Intense chocolate aroma, with a little fruit sweetness. It's nice. It's super dark, and can't be candled.
Tried it after a few moments of letting it rest. Wow, yeah, very strong raspberry flavors up front. There's also good chocolate flavors in there, but critically so, it's not overpowering. There's just enough to add to the fruit and malt tastes, but not enough to make it the dominant aspect of the beer. Also, there's no toasted cocoa or burnt flavors. The beer has nice smooth (milk) chocolate flavors on the way out and a pleasant aftertaste of raspberries, which ends up being very pleasant on the palette. I'm very pleased with the outcome of this.
I'd prefer this over the Black Butte XXVI for sure, since not only is it tasty but it's also much cheaper. The Zombie Date night is $12.99, which is a pretty good price for this beer, whereas the Black Butte XXVI was something like $17.99. In addition, I think the Zombie Date Night would be good for the novice beer drinker. It's smooth, tasty, and drinks easily, and has some pretty unobtrusive flavors that might be good for those not yet ready to dive into super-hoppy IPAs or extra-malty barleywines.
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