Boulder Beer Never Summer Ale

Brewed by Boulder Beer Company
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Boulder, Colorado USA

Dark copper with medium off white head. Hoppy and slightly metallic aroma and taste. Sweet finish. Not bad, but not good.

Pours a clear reddish brown with a quickly dissipating head. Aroma is pretty subtle, but strange. Some caramel which is usually nice, but there’s some weird plantstore/cheese type scents coming off of this, and it just is not right. Taste is thankfully more toffee-y and raisins, with a bit of odd tartness. Finishes with a light roast and well rounded bitterness, but the out of place plantstore tendancies still linger. Flavors don’t blend very well. Perhaps I should have this in a smokey bar already drunk, so I’m incapable of noticing the weirdness. Meh. No nutmeg here thankfully, but that didn’t help.

13-Sep-06 (12 oz bottle: Liquid Solutions in Tigard, OR) Am I allowed to drink Never Summer Ale, given that it’s Always Summer here in San Diego? Anyway, the malty, woody, sweet and spicy nose is fairly aggressive and sets the general tone right up front, but the beer is even more flavorful. Sweet, caramely malts, earth and wood provide a strong base, moderate bitterness from the hops balances the sweet malts, and notes of spice and vanilla lend complexity. The spices don’t seem to fit the typical nutmeg/cinnamon/clove profile usually found in American winter brews. Body is medium-full right through to the finish. Carbonation is medium, but the bitterness and spices make this beer a bit more prickly on the palate. Dark, ruddy-amber color with a fair amount of haze. The light-beige head forms perhaps a half-inch crown atop the beer before settling to a scattered film surrounded by a wide ring. Lacing resembles the outlines of big, puffy cumulous clouds. Pretty heavy on spices and hops, but this is a very flavorful and enjoyable beer, even during the hot summer here in Southern California.

Bottle, poured a deep reddish color with a thin head. Aromas of earthy hops. All i pretty much get are hops. Bitter flavor, a little sweetness but not very balanced. I taste absolutely no spice unless the "Top-Secret Brewmaster’s Spice" is more hops. This to me is an aggresively hopped amber ale, a la Alesmith Yulesmith Winter. Not bad, but not what I was expecting.

Malty, caramel aroma. .. Rich, ruby brown. Tan head. No bubbles. .. Big malty taste up front with some lingering bitterness. Good balance. .. Med Body. Light carbonation. Tasty beer with good balance. Hops predominate the finish. ..

Bottle. Pour is a nice coppery brown color... head is about one finger high of dense, tan foam. Scents are slightly sweet but mostly spicy. Coriander? Flavor has tons of spice to it... it is the main focus and really gets in the way of everything else. There is a slight flavoring of grain dust/chalk at the end of the sip, but everything else plays second fiddle to a white pepper, coriander, fennel spicing that comes off better than I expected. Heck... I kind of like it when it’s nice and cold outside... could have a bit more malt and a little higher ABV to balance out the spiciness, but pretty good as is.

Nice strong ale with a lice stong finish. Had in a bottle with no glass, so that is about all.

I have to deviate on this one because it had this biscuit-like sour quality with way too many spices attached. The finish, however, has a nice medium fizzy mouthfeel. I will have to try this one again because I usually love what comes out from Boulder Beer.