OminouSC2 (4171) - Mora, SWEDEN - JAN 30, 2024UPDATED: JAN 30, 2024 Amber color, small beige head. Aromas of malt, caramel and marmalade. Taste of malt, caramel, grass, marmalade and slight nuts.
FlacoAlto (4461) - Tucson, Arizona, USA - JAN 29, 2024UPDATED: JAN 29, 2024 Sampled January 2024.
A steady pour from the bottle produces a fat-one-finger thick, light tan colored head. The beer is a brilliantly clear, bright amber color with copper highlights. The aroma smells of lightly herbal hops (not quite grassy, not quite minty), with soft notes of currants, lots of toasted grain, some sweet-tea leaning crystal malt character, and lots of dusty, freshly crushed pale malt aromatics.
This has a soft metallic flavor that melds with the firm, but mellow hop bitterness. Nice and fizzy with a carbonic texture and a light-medium body that has a soft malty texture and viscosity. Herbal hop flavors, some notes of currants / red-berries, lots of caramelized crystal malt (somewhat like sweet tea, but with none of the cloying sweetness), hints of menthol, and just a nicely rounded, malty character with lots of toasted, whole grain and nutty flavors.
It has been 17 years since I last had this (see below); the last one was in a clear, skunk inducing bottle. This is much better than I remember (yay brown bottles) and a nice balance between malt and hop character, boosted by the characterful house yeast.
------- Rated August 14, 2006 ------
3.3: 6/4/6/4/13
The beer seemed a bit excited from the trip from the corner store to my glass. It foamed up a bit upon popping the cap, but I managed to rescue most of it into my glass. As I am pouring this brew, I get definite, disappointing notes of light struck beer. The beer is topped by a frothy, initially three-finger thick, large bubble, lace inducing, tan colored head. The beer itself is a brilliantly clear, ruby hued, dark amber color. The light struck skunkiness seems to fade with time, and notes of toffee, a wisp of diacetyl, toasted grain and some caramel do a fair job of masking that particularly offensive aroma. There seems to be a touch of earthy, lightly herbal hops, though one could certainly wish for a bit more.
My taste buds are greeted by a nice sharp bitterness from the get go, it combines with the carbonation to give this brew a decent bite through to and even magnifying in the finish. Soft fruity notes of apples, a touch of grape-like raisin and some notes of lightly sweet caramel balance out the hop bitterness. There is a nice level of underlying toasted malt character here; it gives the beer a sort of toasted biscuit type note. Also there is just a wisp of diacetyl again, it adds a really subtle buttery quality to this brew, but I am a touch sensitive to this particular flavor. It is not offensive though and helps to add some more complexity to this brew. While light and quaffable, this brew has a certain malty heft to it that is quite nice, again it is another thing that helps to balance the noticeable bitterness.
This is not a bad brew, but it is certainly not great either. Shipping this in brown bottles would certainly help this brew immensely. Still I am perfectly happy sipping an Imperial pint of this brew. While some flavors may be too much, or others lacking, this beer really struck a nice balance between the hoppy bitterness and the multifaceted malt character; it is something the English seem to do well, even in a beer like this.
bergstaden (7723) - Røros, NORWAY - DEC 17, 2023UPDATED: DEC 17, 2023 Amber with off white head - Malt aroma wiht hints of hops - Malt body with some caramel notes and some gentle hop flavours and bitterness - Malt and hops goes into the finish - This was nice
HopsAromas57 (286) - - DEC 8, 2023UPDATED: DEC 8, 2023 Brown / tawny colour with thick white head . Aroma is a mixture of treacle and floral spices . Very fruity with balanced bitterness.
thejackpacker (2935) - East Sussex, ENGLAND - NOV 26, 2023UPDATED: NOV 26, 2023 Bottle from Systembolaget. I guess I was expecting something different but that was pretty dumb of me. Has deep ESB malt on the nose. Quite plain mahogany colour. Not the best taste or finish...almost metallic ending to a bitter. Not great.
mcberko (41700) - Vancouver, British Columbia, CANADA - NOV 2, 2023UPDATED: NOV 2, 2023 355mL bottle, pours a clear copper amber with a medium beige head. Aroma brings out bready malt, toasted caramel, and toffee. Flavour is malty, with lots of toffee, caramel, and bready malt. Lots of maltiness, finishing with dry toffee and caramel. Not much hops. Pleasant.
elosop (1448) - Mölnlycke, SWEDEN - JUL 26, 2023UPDATED: JUL 26, 2023 Mahogny med fint beige skum. Doftar lite fruktigt. Smaken fyllig och gräddig, lite söt och besk. Eftersmaken lång med ihållande fruktig beska, någon sötma, lite karamell och kola.
Senap (969) - Uppsala, SWEDEN - JUL 19, 2023UPDATED: JUL 19, 2023 Riktigt klassisk med en härlig kombination av knäck, malt och en försiktig men tydlig beska. Old school men värd att pröva.
HULK777 (1146) - - JUL 16, 2023UPDATED: JUL 16, 2023 Honney and candy aroma. The taste is sweet, with bread, sugar, honney and crackers. Nice, but sweet.
watz (202) - - JUL 8, 2023UPDATED: JUL 8, 2023 Red copper appearance
Sweet amber nose
Rusty amber mouthfeel. Dry. A bit watery . Dry finish.
Good…