Can. A sweet caramel and sour milk aroma. Reddish amber color with small head. Slight smoky malt and hard toffee flavor. Moderate hops finish. Decent beer.

2006 can drunk on 11/10/06
Very encouraging amount of head. Two or three fingers of it fills up the glass and I have to wait to pour the rest. Off-white and slow to recede, never falling below cover. Light lacing in patches. Clear copper-gold body has a hint of peach hue to it. Quite a bit of carbonation noted in the liquid.
Initially quite dry and bitter, I’m a bit taken aback. It’s not overly aromatic, it seems, and while the yeast is clean, the malt adds a bit of toastiness that detracts from the brightness (but then, it’s an East coaster, so can you really complain?). Some pine resin, and a bit of juciy floral notes come to the rescue. Aroma strength increasing, with even some noble hop herbal notes (dill, oregano) apparent, though adding little in the face of the citrusy cascades, but I was just hoping for more variation, with less malt apparency.
The flavor goes the same way, unfortunately, and I’m about to write it off as another IPA with the hop bitterness outdoing the hop flavor/aroma, but very late, after some breathing and warming, some definite cherry and watermelon notes emerge. Quite delicious and joined by an almost sweet wintergreen-like note. By this time, the palate has accustomed to the breadiness of the crystal malts and the pale malts are left, combining with this newfound fruitiness to produce candied cherry, orange and more melon notes. Quite delicious. Medium amounts of carbonation, not overly loose or annoying for being forced. Medium body, slightly sticky texture at times. Definitely improved greatly towards the end. Will have to try it again soon.

Can. Nice aroma, but I smell malts jumping right out at me. Sure, some hoppiness, but maltiness in the nose of an IPA certainly means a less hoppy version of my favorite style. Yep, malts are there... a decent amount of hops, but the malts definitely stick out.

Pours bright yellow from the can into a shaker. Bright white micro head with good retention and lacing. Barely noticeable grass aromas. Upfront malt with an abrupt, dry, bitter metallic finish. Unfortunate that it tastes like metal -- the uninformed might blame it on the can.

On cask at NEBF, 10/29/05. Very nice pour to this, a fluffy beige-tan head atop a mahogany-auburn-orange body. While it hasnt exactly dropped bright, it’s not terribly murky. Head is not well-retained with little to no lacing. Aroma of sweet cherries and raisins, musty, almost sourish-like yeast and tons of caramel and toffee as backbone. Light notes of vanilla-creme and a hint of sherry. Flavor is a rather basic toffee-caramel charged English barleywine. Alcohol warmth is highly present and adds a good deal of bite on the finish. Light caramel covered oranges, playful fruitiness and a touch of dry chocolate on the end. I think the cask nature of the beer really helped. I have no doubt this is rather thin in the bottle, as it wasnt exactly thick and chewy on cask. But the lack of carbonation and the thinner palate were not as much a hindrance on cask as they would be in the bottle. Borderline creamy texture, though quite loose on the end. I can see the flavor improving with age, and mellowing out and gaining more sherry/madeira notes, but if the body is as thin as everyone says it is in the bottle, then we’ve got quite a problem. There’s certainly no excuse for having a thin texture. I’ve had 25 year old Thomas Hardys that has a much better texture than this.

2005 can. Pours a amber-gold colored body, clear, bubbly and has a small amount of poorly retained white head. Aroma of bitter, nutty-like hops, grainy pale malt, bit of dry toffee, perhaps, and some dry yellow fruits. Flavor is highly bitter up front. Not really citric, just sort of bitter without much hops flavor behind the bitterness. Little bit of sticky toffee-caramel, but it’s quite dry. Watery, loose body seems at odds with the high bitterness. I also detect a fair amount of acidity in this. Hints of breadiness and biscuits. Dry/bitter finish. Medium-light body, watery texture, lively carbonation, to quote a phrase.

2005 bottle. Oh boy, here we go again. I thought my swill tasting was behind me, but alas. . .Corn and vanilla in the nose, lager yeast. Crappy yellow-orange clear appearance, poor head no retention. The flavor dosent come off that poorly though, light malting, bits of cereal, honey, yeast. I’m not sold on this one. Where are the hops? They certainly weren’t too liberal with those. Medium body, not watery at least. No offense to anyone, but why is this not a pale lager? I better try another can, which I will do shortly.

Golden coloured. Sweetish, malty, medium biterness..........................