6.2/10
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Appearance 10
Aroma 6
Flavor 5
Texture 6
Overall 6
A pitch black beer with a fine brown head. The aroma is of sweet caramel. The flavor is sweet and roasted combined with spices and berries. More special than good.
Tried
on 16 Dec 2004
at 17:17
7.1/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
RateBeer rating #500. Pours dark brown, kinda thick, and ands up with a small head. Smells include chocolate, wildberries, and slightly cough syrupy. Flavor is sweet, combining a fruitiness with chocolate, almost like a cordial. It’s got a pop-fizz thing in the middle, and finishes smooth and slick. A nice brew.
Tried
on 07 Dec 2004
at 02:50
6.2/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 7
From a sampler 3-pack. Hazy dark yellow color with a decent head. Fruity aroma, but just the typical ale aromas, nothing that would stand out as being Gooseberry. Again I didn’t notice any flavor that would distinguish if from the average ale. Decent, but nothing remarkable or very different in this one.
Tried
on 01 Dec 2004
at 05:51
6.4/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 7.5
Hazy gold color with a fleeting head. Aroma is malty with herbal notes that I can’t place. The flavor is lightly sweet with a bit of bitterness in the finish. The heather is very much hidden and presents itself more as a complexity that defies description rather than being up front and obvious. Interesting beer that is not bad.
Tried
from Can
on 30 Nov 2004
at 05:25
6.4/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 4
Overall 5.5
Bottle. Magnificent blood red pour with a small beige head. Aroma is strongly elderberry oil/juice with some light grains in the background. Flavor begins with the elderberry you’re expecting, nice and fruity, oily and tart. Finishes with a oaty, light cocoa-meets-berries flavor and some very astringent herbal notes. I love the flavor and I really think they only need to amp up the malt in this one to get past some of the astringency (which is big). But the mouthfeel?? Eh, it’s rather thin and lifeless thanks to the utter filtration of this. I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that the druids didnt filter their beer like this, so why must HAL??
Tried
from Bottle
on 11 Nov 2004
at 15:43
5.8/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 5
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 5
Pours a reddish-brown with no head. Aroma is very creamy and full. Flavor is very berry. I can get some raspberrys and blackberrys as well as cherries. Overall it is very sweet and tart. Probably nothing i would get again but worth a try.
Tried
from Can
on 29 Oct 2004
at 20:43
5.8/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 5
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 6
Bottle. Semi-sweet, standard bitterness. Not too distinct pine flavour, but enough to give a hint. Interesting enough, but gets boring after a while.
Tried
from Bottle
on 26 Oct 2004
at 19:01
7.2/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 8
Very dark brown, nearly black with a fleeting tan ring of bubbles that never really formed a true head. Fruity wine aroma. The flavor is rich, roast malt with neither bitterness or sweetness predominating. A little bit of the elderberry comes in on the sides of the tongue ending in an acidic finish that is well done. Interesting and enjoyable change of pace brew.
Tried
on 17 Oct 2004
at 16:52
6.2/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 6
Texture 4
Overall 6
Slightly hazy amber colour with a smallish hazy tan head. Aroma of brown sugar, caster sugar and raisins-NO pine! Medium-bodied; Sweet initial taste with, once again, NO pine and no spices to speak of. Aftertaste a bit bittering, but overall-more sweet than spicey. A decent beer overall, but truly more was expected from this one I’ve seen for the past 2 years! I sampled this 33 cL bottle purchased by Andy at Premier Gourmet on 29-May-2004 at the Eastern Shore in Virginia.
Tried
from Bottle
on 10 Oct 2004
at 22:45
7.2/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7
2004 bottle. Wonderful violet, maroon, burgundy color with a small cream-colored head. Aroma is strong of deeply fragrant vinous notes, blackberries, and sweet honey and maple. Flavor is somewhat dry from the spruce, but there is a good, wine-like quality. Plenty of berries, yet dry and even lightly astringent. Light carbonation, and only a medium to medium-full body. I was expecting a little more stickiness and chewiness, but the beer seems quite heavily filtered (as all of HAL’s beers are). Finishes with a hint of caramel, raisins and a bit of earthy wood and alcohol. I enjoyed the fuller flavor of the seaweed ale more, but this one may be a bit more sublime and complex.
Tried
from Bottle
on 26 Sep 2004
at 10:55