Bottle. Metallic sour malt aroma. Drak copper color with small head. Slightly sweet initially - light berry flavor followed by fairly strong hops and alcohol. Would have liked a stronger flavor but pretty well balanced.

Draft. Amber beer with a big off-white head. aroma is spicey/floral hops. Spicey hop flavor with sweet malts, some citrus, and some graininess. Fairly easy to drink, but the flavor is a little odd.

I am not overly familiar with this brewer. Sampled from a 12 oz brown bottle this beer poured a light honey color with a medium sized yellowish head. The aroma is sour grainy malts with molasses underneath. The flavor is sweet and has noted molasses and caramel elements and a moderate hop presence. There are some nice elements to this beer but it did not hold together overly well for me.

Cloudy straw color with aroma of caramel and moderate hops - no head - decent taste, but lacks balance - sweet caramel flavors clash dramatically with a gradually swelling hop presence - both seem to fight for dominance, instead of finding harmony - hops completely take over the finish - it begins as a strong brown ale and finishes as an IPA - a beer that doesn’t know what it wants to be, and, as a result, confuses the palate.

Relatively clear copper body, almost no head. Caramel, sugar, dark fruit and piney hops aroma. Sweet body with plenty of malt sugars, tones of caramel and candy. Grassy hops with pine highlights are evident around the edges. Despite the apparent complexity, this beer is quite thin-bodied for an American Strong Ale and just doesn’t pack the "ooomph" better beers of this style do. That said, this isn’t bad.

Bottled. Cloudy amber. Intense aroma of grapefruit, yeast and grass. Sweet and malt with dense mouthfeel. Full bodied with notes of banana. Really hoppy with bitter, mutky finish. East End Brewery, where I had this beer is a fantastic establishment. Not only that their house beer are ales from the local micro, but thay also import a good range of microbrews, mainly from USA and UK.

Bottle #2:
Very slightly cloudy amber colour with a thin white head that fades fast! Strong smells of yeast, alcool and a bit of malt. Medium-bodied; Light flavour of malt, even lighter hops. But all with a more potent metallic, alcoholic and yeasty taste. Aftertaste very mild for a beer this strong...showing a bit of the malt character, but not much. Overall, not a good beer. This was a bit worse than my first bottle. I bought this twelve ounce bottle at Total Wine in Chantilly, Virginia and sampled it on 14-September-2003. Rating for this sample: 6,3,5,2,10.

Bottle #1:
Very slightly hazy orange/amber colour with a fairly dense tan head. Sweet smell that has strong hop and malt presence with a fruity characteristic. Strong aroma, and very nice. Medium to Full-bodied; Strong flavour of alcohol up front with a bit of malt then showing some hops near the end. No sweetness really, just bittering characteristics. Overall, worth trying as people have mentioned (its $1.50 for a 12 ounce), but its not a GREAT beer. Overall, not balanced enough and not enough of the 'good' characteristics come out. The alcohol is hidden well though, this seems pretty mild! I got this twelve ounce bottle in a trade with Dave (Rodolito) from California...Thanks again Dave! Rating for this sample: 8,4,6,2,12.

2003 bottle. Fruity smell, dark berries, blossomy floral aromas, very fragrant and fresh. Rust/Peachy-orange color. Clouded, which was nice to see. Bottle. Initial taste is a bit yeasty, pungent, somewhat sharp alcohol notes. Faint Bittersweet caramel notes on the back of the palate, that leave after the beer warms. Some orange blossom taste in the body. Medium full bodied. Some complexity comes out as beer warms. Good body, but bitter orange dominates a bit too much for my liking. Finishes with the same bitter floral/orange flavor. An improvement on the not as complex red tail ale.