Elk Creek Olde Millheim Strong Ale

Formerly brewed at Elk Creek Cafe and Aleworks
Style: American Strong Ale
Millheim, Pennsylvania USA

Draught at the brewpub. Pours hazy maple color with beige head. The aroma is woody hops, caramel, slight roast, and cinnamon. The flavor is ash and wood, a bit of sweet caramel and prune, some fruity hops. The finish is cherry, oak, pear, and a light bitterness. Some toffee qualities linger into the aftertaste. Pretty good, I thought.

On tap at the brewpub. Nose runs in a blush of pale fruits and light caramel. Fairly generic. Pours in a deep red mahogany, with a rising creamy swath of tan above. Flavor is a rather calm gentle sweetness, with noticeably warming alcohols, light perfume quality and some subtle tannic feeling. There’s a lot of purple fruit; pluot and grape running through this, but overall the malt character isn’t that deep, just a touch generic. There’s a surprising amount of roast and mostly caramelization. Finishes on par for the style, not too sweet, not too dry. Fresh, clean and lively.

On tap, at brewpub. Pours a very dark brown body with a minimal creamy nitro head on the sampler size, but I must admit, it looked quite a bit more enticing when I saw the full pour that mj got. The nose is slightly fruity with some toffee maltiness and no noticable alcohol fumes. The flavor is a little sweet for me with some grape soda notes and dark fruits. No alcohol noted on the flavor as well. Mouthfeel is medium to full bodied with a fairly viscous texture. Minimal soft carbonation. Overall, pretty decent, but it didn’t strike me as something special.

Dark ruby/purple brown in color, with a well-formed, firm tan nitro head (see pic). Faint nose overall, but with some nice maraschino cherry and cedar malt notes, some sweet woody and fruity hops, finishing semi-sweet, smooth, and chewy. Some black cherry skins and light roast round out this well-made, quiet, smooth, flavorful beer.