Odonata Rorie’s Ale Batch 001

Brewed by Odonata Beer Company
Style: Abt/Quadrupel
Sacramento, California USA

Courtesy of Styles

Bottle: The aroma consists of consists of cherries, caramel, chocolate, wine, and oak. It pours a dark reddish-brown with a quarter inch off-white head with good retention. The flavor starts with sweet cherry, chocolate, caramel, and raisin. The finish consists of tart cherries, wine, oak, and a hint of alcohol. Medium bodied with mild carbonation and a soft almost creamy mouthfeel.

Poured beautiful dark reddish brown, brown sugar, vanilla, caramel, wood, little cherry, little malty, little dry peach finish.

Pours a beautiful deep garnet with a finger thick light tan head. Nose and flavor are light cherries coated in brown sugar and some other dried fruits. As it warm it goes a bit more stone fruits with a smooth and slight burn in the finish. Creamy on the palate.

75cl bottle thanks to illidurit, and a well earned thanks for bringing this gem to the tasting. Hazy red with a medium beige head. Awesomely complex aroma of tart cherries, oak, lots of red wine, caramel-sweet malt and candied fruits. The flavor is a nearly sublime mix of red wine and strong dark belgian ale laced with tart cherries. Sweet dried fruit blends with cherry, oak, and wine, starting with a rich malty sweetness and ending with a light tartness and oaky tanic bite. Creamy carbonation with a medium-full body and light astringency. I’m a little sad that I was not tipped of to this great beer when it was available at the local beer store, but I am definitely looking forward to Odonata’s full line of barrel-aged beers.

Great ruby pour with a pinkish ecru head that leaves a smattering of wet lace. Aroma is very winey, lots of jamminess and berries along with the expected black cherry notes. Some oak and light alcohol as well. Flavor is fruity red wine atop a bed of caramel and maple syrup maltiness from the quad. The cherry notes are a bit hidden behind the forward wine character. Light tartness, lots of complexity. Finish is a bit astringent from the wine. Mouthfeel is full and satisfying, carbonation is rather perfect.

750mL bottle, purchased from The Shack in Sacramento. Pours a clear, dark, orange-tinged cherry-cola color; thin light-tan head with good retention and fine-bubbled lacing that sticks; attractive pour. Some solid and lightly tannic red wine notes, brown sugar, barrel toastiness and cherry juice in the nose; nicely dry, fully developed presence; nothing messy here, hidden alcohol, and a smooth approach. Medium-to-full mouthfeel: this beer (especially after Ommegang’s big and sticky Adoration earlier today) really is a well-developed, vinuous, complex quad; there’s a complex, caramel and chewy brown sugar core matched to a well-met white pepper note; excellent presence and acidity in the mouth; lightly tart red fruits, hints of citrus, all backed up by a toasted wine barrel presence that really is nothing if not soft, well-integrated, and beautifully brought into the vision of this beer (I was kind of hoping to pan this, in spite of the fact that I loved Sac Brew’s Brett Blonde); honey, light vanilla, toasty barrel and hints of maple syrup, and all without showing any overt sweetness; this is anything but a happen-chance big beer succeeding; this is carefully dried, carefully blended, and masterfully done by a brewer that evidently knows his shit by now; very satisfying, and one which I’ll happily drink a whole bottle of. Lasting finish of toasty maltiness, light cereal, some red fruits; all nicely dry.

It’s dark brown with a reddish hue and pours nicely into a La Trappe trappist glass sporting a foamy tan head. Most of the head didn’t last long, but underneath is a mixture of aromas - toffee, cherry and prune - and a deliciously complex flavor featuring caramel, chocolate, cherry and oak with a vanilla aftertaste. This well-crafted beer is a pleasure to drink.

Gotta rate this before it gets away from me. Last bottle on a day from the Coop in Davis, CA. Pours a dense reddish brown with a decent bubbly tan head. Subdued tart cherry aroma with backing darker fruits. Wood. Near full bodied with creamy carbonation. Flavor is amazing. Tart cherry, followed by oak, followed by a touch of sweetness, followed by more oak, and something suggesting chocolate - it’s not chocolate but has similar impact. It finishes rich and full. It’s not exactly sour, it’s astringent with oak and sourish cherry. I’ll buy all I can get - which doesn’t look like many right now. :(