Holy Mackerel Mack in Black is one of the beers I found and drank last week in Florida—that is, it’s a genuine Florida-brewed beer.

The pedigree on this beer is interesting; it’s nominally produced by Gordash Beer Company, but in fact they’re a beer marketing company and they actually contracted with the Florida Beer Company (in Melbourne, Florida) to brew the beer.

The other thing about this beer is the subtitle on the bottle and the note: "Imperial Black Ale" and "with pomegranate juice". I don’t believe I’ve yet run across that particular "Imperial" nomenclature and adding the pomegranate juice to the mix was just too interesting to pass up. Oh, and it’s a respectable 8% alcohol by volume, and the label (and their site) notes "this ale is suitable for aging 1-2 years."

(You’ll notice the picture is of the hotel pour… not exactly a proper beer glass, but hey, you make do.)

Appearance: Black with an off-white head that fell to a foam ring.

Smell: Dark and fruity, with a sourish character. A coffee note.

Taste: Very dark tasting—roasted malts and coffee… heavy on the roasted malts (a bitter astringency). The fruit juice is there, tart but not overly so… fairly mild and refreshing. I don’t notice the 8% strength at all.

Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied, dry (astringent) from the roasted malts.

Overall: The pomegranate is what’s interesting, on top of the coffee notes. Definitely a "black" beer all around, and surprisingly refreshing.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores a grade of B. On RateBeer, it scores 3.6 out of 5 and is in their 89th percentile.

And, since the pictures I took at the hotel are kind of crappy, here’s a bonus larger picture of the bottle: