Cape Ann Fishermans Tea Party

Brewed by Cape Ann Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Gloucester, Massachusetts USA

Draught at Oliver Twist, Stockholm. Cloudy ruby, small head. Floral nose. Sweet and full bodied with clean chewy crystallic malt. Sweet and butterscotchy with some smoke and orange. Growing late bitterness. Interesting and flavourful.

Draught@Oliver Twist, Stockholm. Deep reddish amber colour with small beige head. Aroma is alcohol, roasted malts, some mild wooden, vanillaish and peaty notes. Flavour is quite much the same along with some raisins and more strong on the wooden notes than the aroma was.

2009-09-03 and 2009-09-04, draught at Oliver Twist, Stockholm
Cloudy red-amber color; creamy head, a small cap of foam is persistent.
The aroma has a decent smoke touch going along with the malt and caramel, woody as well, and with a tear of peaty whiskey; later some cereals appear.
Full bodied, rich malt and caramel flavor; the sweetness happily marry the smoke, without being syrupy; lightly tannic.
The final is malty, the sugar sticks on the lips, with caramel and a trace of smoke; it’s not extremely hopped like in others North American examples, but still it’s enough to reminds us that ain’t a smoked Doppelbock; it’s more enjoyable this way.
A whisky-barley wine. exploring a different terrain, with an interesting mix: sweetness, freshly cut wood, caramel and light smoke.

(draft) Small off-white head atop hazy dark amber body. Aroma is moderately sweet, peach, caramel, grapefruit/orange. Taste is moderately sweet, peach, caramel, some earthy/grapefruit. Some stickiness in a medium-full body.

Cask at Barcade. Very dark brown beer with absolutely no head at all. No carbonation either. Massive peaty, smoky resiny aroma. Rich and loaded with pine smoke. Pungent and rich salty smoke. The piney tea really comes forward as the beer starts to warm. The resiny smoke lingers on the back of the palate. Beech smoke as well. The flavour is immediately smokey up front with some sweet malts, a bit of raisin and dark nuttiness. Very tannic as well with a harsh astringency on the back behind the sweet malts. A lot of roast through the middle that thins the body considerably. Further sampling has the smokey flavour immediately clobber the palate and wash it clean of any other subtlety or nuance that might be here. It might be too smokey (which makes me feel dirty for even saying it). I think it’s a good concept, but one that wasn’t executed to the level that it could have been. As it stands, it’s a nearly undrinkable mess of a beer. At least it smelled good.

Cask @ Barcade. Poured a clear very deep brown with no head. The aroma had huge but soft smoke. Fairly phenolic. The smoke covers everything yet it seems balanced. The flavor is so smoky it is hard to tell what the malt is even like. Smoke from front to back. The finish had notes of an old black tea bag. Medium fullness but dull body with some warmth.

(Draught at Oliver Twist, Stockholm) Dark reddish amber colour with frothy, beige head. Malty nose with dried fruit, caramel, smoke and Lapsang tea. Malty taste with notes of dried fruit, smoke, orange peel and a generous citrussy, piney bitterness in the finish. Hops are balanced by the smokey malt. Full body, rather sweet. Lots of different flavours: smoke, fruit and hops. But everything comes together in good balance. On the extreme side, but in my opinion a lovely beer.

Cask at barcade. Dead brown pour looks more like an old, stale mead than beer. Aroma is a fantastic blast of peaty smoke that is anything but a sign of things to come. The second you put this in your mouth it is a huge letdown, a syrupy, ashy mess. Completely flat, lifeless, the big smokiness which normally helps a beer just makes this one even worse. Near undrinkable. Could not finish even half my glass. I’d say this needs about half the malt bill to be any good. Focus on the smoke.