Blue Mountain Mandolin Artisanal Ale

Brewed by Blue Mountain Brewery
Style: Abbey Tripel
Afton, Virginia USA

25 oz bottle. Pours a dark copper body, very clear on first pour with a two finger frothy off-white head that had good retention. The nose is thick and heavy pale maltiness with some nice perfumy flowery hops. Lighter tropical fruits and yeast. The flavor is very perfumy, it’s almost chemical tasting at times. Very simple malt profile, not much complexity here from the yeast. Moderate alcoholic finish. Fairly thick and viscous with a very weighty finish. Light pinpoint fizzy carbonation. Not a whole lot of depth here, coupled with the weird chemical taste, it adds up to not too much to get excited for here.

Poured at the Cigar City Bolita release party. Gold pour. Small whte head. Yeasty as hell on the nose wtih some faint spices. Flavor is ok. Yeast, spices, light fruits and lots of bubbles.

750mL cork and caged bottle courtesy of CrellMoset. The cork slid out very easily with nary a sound and poured completely still into the glass. There was maybe a stray bubble along the top but almost no carbonation evident at all. The aroma smell like red apple rinds with some fruity esters evident as well. There are hints of spiciness as well. The taste follows the aroma and has an apple juice character. There is definitely a spicy yeast presence in the taste, and there is a faint hop bitterness that comes though a bit. The mouthfeel is the real problem with this one and I fear I just got a bad bottle. It was completely flat with no hint of carbonation. The aroma and flavors in this beer seem to suggest a very solid Belgian tripel, but the mouthfeel really holds the whole thing back and makes it tough for me to judge.

Pours gold with a nice white head. Smells of crisp dry malt, some spice, earthy. Tastes of pepper, grassy some dryness on the finish. Decent.

750ml bottle courtesy of Alraomon. The cork was a bitch on this one. Once popped, it pours a hazy a dark gold with a quickly dissipating one finger white head. Nose is Belgian yeast, spice and light hops. Taste is pretty much the same with a semi-bitter alcohol finish. Mouth feel is pretty flat and wine like. Maybe I got a bad bottle. Thanks Sean for allowing me the opportunity to try this.

Pours deep gold with copper core and white head. The aroma has solid notes of lighter than dark fruity esters and decent amount of yeasty spice. The taste has plenty of fruitiness like raisins, prunes and a bit of apples followed by a floral hop note. Not too much else seems to be going on except a pretty solid alcohol presence. Still nice stuff.

Thanks to pepsican and iowaherkeye for sharing this bottle. Not sure which one of you brought it. Poured a clear light orange color with an off white head. Spicy, fruity aroma of mango, apricot, and subdued clove. Apricot came out againin the flavor along with flaky pasty and astringent alcohol. Nice.