Urthel is new territory for me.  I saw Samaranth amongst several of their brews and I was enchanted by the name.  It was different and interesting and, it turns out, reflects the qualities of the beer in the bottle.  Urthel is made by De Koningshoeven and WAS made by InBev from 1969 to 1980 but is now a subsidiary of Bavaria - Netherlands.  It is made by Trappist monks and in 2005, the rights to use the Authentic Trappist Product logo were restored to Urthel.  So now, Urthel is once again real beer made by real monks.

Samaranth pours a beautiful golden brown with a thick head with large bubbles.  The aromas are dark fruits, dark malts, yeast and brown sugar.  The alcohol does come through on the nose but at 11% abv, that's nearly unavoidable.  Let me go ahead and warn you, if you're not a fan of sweet, malty beers... Samaranth is not for you.  The malts are vengeful here.  I get very strong molasses on the palate that coats the palate very well.  I get a tinge of citrus on the very tail end of the finish, but other than that, it's nothing but molasses, brown sugar, yeast, and alcohol.

Personally, this is not for my palate.  I can see this maybe pairing with some cheese or chocolate as the Urthel website suggests, but even that's a stretch for me (keeping in mind that I have not tried it).  Some people will really like this beer.  I may appreciate this more in cooler weather where my palate is more accepting of high alcohol, but I can't really recommend this for the hot summer months.