The Special Golden Ale (2008 vintage) is the other Gordash Beer Company beer that I tried while in Florida last week.

It’s brewed in the style of a Belgian strong ale, and settles in at 8.5% alcohol. With that strength and the vintage note on the bottle, the brewer notes (like for their Mack in Black) that the beer is suitable for aging.

(Sitting in a hotel in Florida, leaving the next day, I decided to forgo the aging bit.)

Appearance: Clear and orange; fizzy but the head didn’t last.

Smell: Sweet with toasted malts, Belgian candi sugar. A hint of bitterness and sour/mustiness.

Taste: Light with a strong bitter note—not necessarily from hops, but there is a vegetative note to it. Strong character, sweet from the candi sugar.

Mouthfeel: On the light side of medium-bodied. Relatively high carbonation in the mouth.

Overall: Decent, competent Belgian-style golden.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B-. On RateBeer, it scores 3.19 out of 5 and is in their 60th percentile.

And, because the picture of the "hotel pour" isn’t really that great, here’s a larger picture of the bottle like I did for the other beer: