Huon Dark Apple Ale

500ml bottle. Pours black. Apple, toast, bit of balsamic, biscuit, touch of chocolate, apple cider vinegar, strong tart finish with a funky scrumpy thing going on. Nice.

Tap at the Boilermaker House, Melbourne. Poured a clear dark brown colour with a bubbly off white head. The aroma is grainy, light doughy biscuit malt, mineral, crushed apple. The flavour is moderate to light sour with a crisp fresh, tart apple palate, Light to medium bodied with soft carbonation. An interesting sour with some complexity.

Bottle from Hops & Vines. Cloudy dark brown color large beige head. Aroma of baked apples and brownies. Taste is softly sour cocoa, apples, coffee. Hi carbonation interferes with mouthfeel.

Cask at the brewery. Dark toffee, lots of apple, fresh acidity, good balance between acidity and the dark sugars.

(Bottle - as Dark Apple Ale - apparently six different barley malts and 20% apple juice) Clear mahogany brown with tan head. Refreshing aroma with notes of scrumpy cider, lambic, maybe white wine vinegar, and as it warmed up some dark roast malt notes. Medium body with plenty of pleasant carbonation. Taste is good although rather unusual, mixing two styles - a tart scrumpy and dark ale with roasted malts. The taste balance is very much towards the cider with pleasant acidity and apple cider dominating, especially in the foretaste, although there is also some malty sweetness just apparent. The chocolatey, toasty malt flavours develop in the mid palate and persist into the finish, however they are rather in the background. As the beer warmed up, the balance shifted somewhat with the porter characteristics coming forward more. An enjoyable, unusual drink - to me, more a fruit beer than a porter.

From a 500ml bottle on 31/5/2012 (vintage 19 Dec 11, filled to bottle 5 Mar 12, bottle number 413, labelled ’Dark Apple Ale’). Pours a cloudy dark amber with a small head. Has a slight sweet, fruity, skunky aroma. The flavour is all tart apple, with a distinct long sourness overwhelming the slight sweetness at the beginning. Has some salt, vinegar and vinous notes. Has quite a bit of flavour but it’s not particularly pleasant.

Pours black, some brown highlights, small head.Nose shows lovely chocolate and nutty malt with sweet caramel underneath.Similar flavours, but sweet apples start to overwhelm. A bit too tangy to mix with the other characters.Carbonation is moderately high, nice.Get rid of the apple juice and this could be quite good, the roasted and tangy flavours don’t mix well.

[12/09] This is down near the Brown Ale/ Porter border. Numbered bottle (406)! Pours black, dense beige head. Subtle aroma: chocolate, orchard flowers. Chocolatey with some sourness but no bite from (I guess) the apples. Creamy mouthfeel, cleaned up at the end by sourness and gentle hops reminiscent of a dark lager. If this were more assertive it would be kind of a mess, but it’s quite mild in both flavour and aroma and that restraint pays off. Original and good. [3.8] [9/10] Bottle. Dark brown with a lasting beige head. Chocolate, coffee and apple blossoms - although once you know there’s apple juice in there it smells more of fresh juice. Mild roast, chocolate and just-sour apple taste with nice balancing earth/grass hop bitterness that lingers. It’s curious (and good) that the apples have a tenor-note sourness rather than an overt tartness. A very intriguing drop. [3.8] [2/11] Bottle. Older or a different batch? In this one the tart apples have taken over and there’s just a hint of chocolate and roast under real and slightly funky sourness. More spice than grass in the finish, too. Interesting, but not much like a porter at all this time. [7/14] Seems settled as a deliberately sour beer now - nothing porter-like about it. No separate apple flavours either. Usually very good, always interesting.[4/17] Aug 2016 bottle Very low carbonation, almost no head. Very gentle sourness, some bracken. Neither chocolate nor apple are obvious. Could do with just a little more presence. Seems more like a sour brown Flemish beer than before. Leaving score as is, but this is very lovely indeed. A tonic.