Erie Brewing Hard Cock Ale

Brewed by Erie Brewing Company
Style: American Strong Ale
Erie, Pennsylvania USA

hardly strong it is none the less more than adequate of flavor and body. fruity and caramel sweet in pleasant melding the beer has body enhanced by frothy carbonaton and is bready. malty de terra it none the less has a good and fertile aroma and mild taste that i adore in its backround. touch of burn with the carbonation and light citrus hop afterburn creates a nice little trick.

Pours orange with a thin white head. Smells fruity and sweet with some yeasty undertones. Tastes fruity and dry with some earthiness on the finish.

Bottle… Cloudy orange ale with a small, fizzy, white head. Fruity, malty aroma with a yeasty undertone. Big-time caramel aroma with notable fuzzy fruits, cookie dough and orange blossoms. Full-bodied with a whole-milk mouthfeel and medium carbonation. Fruity flavor leans on the sweet side of balance with volumes of molten caramel and biscuit malt. Low bitterness. The finish is fruity and caramelized, but also crisp. Cheers to cheapdark for sending this underrated beer!

Bottle. First, congrats to Erie for having the most inappropriate name that I’ve run across to date. Body is a dingy amber with an orange highlights and a one finger head at first. Aromas are sweet and fruity... not what I was expecting from the label. There is also a little bit of a dusty yeastiness to the aromas. My first thought is "Is this really only 6.8% ABV?" There is absolutely no attempt made to hide the astringent alcohol, and it probably kills some of the more subtle flavors. Second, this is an APA? Really? It’s not bad, but I don’t see it. With the candi sugar like sweetness and the high octane alcohol presence it seems misplaced, but hey, it’s not my brewery. Anyhow, starts off sweet and then turns hot and alcoholic, ending with a somewhat chalky and yeasty aftertaste. Not great, not horrible.

Bottle thanks to cheapdark! Pours Hazy amber orange, off white head. Aroma is candied caramel, peat, tangerine; smells very chewy and sweet. Flavor is the same with some lingering wheat. This brew is a bit too sweet and could have benefitted from more hops bitterness. What can I say, I’m a hop head.

This tasted more like an American strong rather than an APA. The alcohol burn made it taste stronger than it actually is. The hops are not there. There is a strong malt backbone with a little bitter aftertaste. This is not a top APA but it is better than a lot out there. And to think they are only a couple of hours away! Nice.

Brown 12 oz bottle. A new entry at my beer store for Erie Brewing. Erie must be one of the most underated of the micro brews, they really have some notable brews. Has a yeasty ubiquitous beery aroma but it is not conation. There are mephitic hints of copper in there too. The pour is hazy orangish brown. There is a froth on top of this beer but no head. No lacing to speak of but there is a girdle of slender white bubbles around the inside of the glass. The taste is mild to medium malty bitter. You can tell it is pretty forward on the alky scale. Yes there is some carbonation on the palate but is below terdium quid. The taste is reminiscent of other stronger ales. Has a little of that medicinal bitter quality that sticks to your tongue. This may be just a little bit more than my girlie taste buds can tolerate. Mind you, it is not like the bitterness associated with IPA or imp stout but it certainly reaches the level of a pale ale or american pale ale. There is some malty bitterness in there as well, tho not roasted. On the finish, it is pretty good but that acrid medicinal quality hangs with you for a while.