I loved this beer, and it is made by one of my new favorite breweries, Williamsburg Alewerks. I took a tour of this brewery a few months ago, and it is small. Like, convert-your-oversized-garage-into-a-brewery small. Our tour guide was a very knowledgeable gentleman who is a shareholder in the company, and the tour ended with many generous tastes of delicious beers (as it should have, since the tour was not free). In fact, I did not taste even one boring beer. And there were a couple yummy high-alcohol beer samples too.
Anyway, back to Brewmaster's Reserve Grand Illumination Ale. It looks great in the glass (I didn't take a picture of that so you'll just have to imagine it): amber, almost reddish-brown in color. This is a barleywine style ale clocking in at 10% alcohol, just where I like it. There's an obvious hit of alcohol as you drink it, but the heaviness of the beer keeps the alcohol from being overwhelming. The flavor is rich, malted, and syrupy, like a true barleywine, but it's also very well-hopped, and briefly even bitter, until finishing on the sweeter side. According to the bottle, Illumination Ale contains Sterling, Columbus, Pearle, Northern Brewer, Fuggles, and Bullion hops. Don't ya just love hops names? Fuggles!! That's gonna be the name of my next dog.
In conclusion, get this beer if you can find it! I have started seeing Williamsburg Alewerks beers around the DC area more and more. Good luck to you, my friend. I believe I purchased this one at Lost Dog, and it was $8.99 for the 22-ouncer.
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