Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5.5
Winter Beer Fest, Philly: Pours brownish with a white head. Aroma is light amount of hops, plenty of malts, toffee. Taste is caramel, lightly sweet. I don’t know what is cream ale about this. The wood didn’t really shine through in my opinion all that well. I was really unimpressed by this.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
750 ml bottle into snifter, no bottle dating. Pours crystal clear very dark reddish brown color with a 1-2 finger fairly dense khaki head with good retention, that reduces to a thin cap that lingers. Light spotty lacing clings on the glass, with a fair amount of streaming carbonation. Aromas of caramel, toast, toffee, brown bread, brown sugar, light chocolate, light vanilla, raisin, fig, plum, oak, rum, and toast/oak earthiness. Nice aromas with good balance and complexity of dark/bready malt and rum oak notes; with good strength. Taste of caramel, toast, toffee, molasses, brown bread, brown sugar, light chocolate, vanilla, raisin, fig, plum, oak, rum, and toast/oak earthiness. Light earthy oak/roast bitterness on the finish; with lingering notes of caramel, toast, toffee, brown bread, brown sugar, light chocolate, raisin, fig, plum, oak, rum, and toast/oak earthiness on the finish for a while. Very nice complexity and robustness of dark/bready malt and rum oak spiral flavors; with a great malt/oak flavor balance and zero cloying sweetness after the finish. Medium carbonation and medium-full bodied; with a smooth, moderately creamy, and lightly slick/bready mouthfeel that is nice. Alcohol is well hidden with only a light warming present after the finish. Overall this is a very good oak aged strong ale. All around well balanced dark/bready malt and rum oak spiral flavors; and very smooth to sip on for the big ABV. A nicely enjoyable offering.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
750 ml bottle into snifter, no bottle dating. Pours fairly crystal clear deep reddish brown color with a 2 finger dense light khaki head with good retention, that reduces to a small cap that lingers. Nice spotty soapy lacing clings on the glass, with a fair amount of streaming carbonation. Aromas of caramel, toast, toffee, brown sugar, raisin, plum, red grape, brandy, vanilla, light oak, herbal, yeast/oak earthiness. Nice and pleasant aromas with good balance and complexity of dark/bready malt, fruity yeast ester, and light-moderate oak notes; with solid strength. Taste of big caramel, toast, toffee, vanilla, raisin, plum, red grape, brown sugar, biscuit, oak, herbal, light chocolate, and oak/yeast earthiness. Slight earthy tannic bitterness on the finish; with lingering notes of caramel, toast, toffee, vanilla, raisin, plum, red grape, brown sugar, biscuit, oak, herbal, light chocolate, and oak/yeast earthiness. Very nice complexity of dark/bready malt, fruit yeast ester, and brandy oak spiral flavors; with a great malt/oak flavor balance and zero cloying sweetness after the finish. Medium carbonation and medium-full bodied; with a smooth, fairly slick, and lightly bready mouthfeel that is good. Alcohol is well hidden with only a light warming present after the finish. Overall this is a very good oak aged strong ale. All around nice balance and complexity of dark/bready malt, brandy oak, and fruity/earth yeast flavors; and smooth to sip on for the ABV. A nicely enjoyable offering.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5
Bottle, picked this up in Bismarck thinking $5.99 for a barrel aged strong ale was a good buy. Not the case. Very odd, muted malty mess with some barrel/oak notes. Maybe this was an old bottle, but I found overall the flavor to be so subdued it was distracting. Like the open bottle was left on the counter all night.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 4 | Flavor - 4 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 4.5
Sampled from a 12 oz brown bottle this beer poured a very dark brown color - almost black with a small foamy brown head that faded and left minimal lacing. The aroma was malty cookie dough, bourbon, vanilla, cola and flour. The flavor was malty flour, a bit of cocoa, bourbon, more flour, coconut, vanilla and more flour. Medium length bread dough, flour and bourbon finish Moderately full bodied but a bit undercarbonated. The flour presence overwhelms and I found myself liking this beer less with each sip.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 4 | Flavor - 4 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
Bomber from a Grocery Outlet. Pours ruddy amber with a creamy beige/tan head. Aroma is a bit strange - like something overcooked. Hint of chocolate. Near med body. Flavor is dark burntish malt with hints of coffee and chocolate, and I’d say more than a hint of honey. Meh! But it didn’t cost much!
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5
750ml bottle shared with Deep opaque brown-black, thin oily beige head, patchy. Creamy brown malt, chocolate. Sweet, some doughy nutty raisin, rum. Not so hoppy, odd to call it a Pale Ale. Pretty drinkable for the ABV. Tastes like a Brown Ale.
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 6.5
Bottle: Clear, deep brown with a short, off-white head. Rum and dark fruit aroma. Smoky vanilla, woody, thick caramel malt flavour. Nice.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 3 | Flavor - 2 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 2
Can. Metallic toffee malt aroma. Amber with moderate light tan head. Extremely light malt flavor with a hint of cocoa in the finish - otherwise like mineral water. At least there’s nothing offensive here.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 4 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 6
16 oz. aluminum can/bottle...as "Olde Johnnie Abbey Amber Ale" Pours deep cola/amber with a short tan head. Caramel malt, sugar aroma. Baked bread/muffin, plum, caramel taste....nutty. Very sweet, malty. Not bad.