Fish Tale Anniversary Ale - 10²

Brewed by Fish Brewing Company/Leavenworth Beers
Style: American Strong Ale
Olympia, Washington USA

22. oz bottle. Pours a dark amber color with nice tan head that dissapears pretty quickly. Nice lacing. Very complex aromoa...a little frustrating as there were several notes I could not identify. Has a sweet aromoa with plenty of citrus (grapefruit) resin and malt. When you get your nose in it deep you will notice a hint of alcohol. Very nice hops flavor, piney...sweet upfront. Medium body with a bitter finish...can detect the alcohol but does not distract. This one is a hop head’s dream.. Watch out for this one...it’s a strong brew! Snuck up on me.

Bottle: Deep red in color with a white head. Aroma, caramel, some alcohol, and some earthy and citrus notes. Flavor, alcohol is a bit strong, but there are lots of great caramel and molasses malty notes, some darker flavors as well. A pretty good earthy hop kick, pretty good stuff.

12oz bottle, pours cloudy almost murky amber with nice tannish tan. nose has a good balance of PNW hops, cookie, chocolate, brown sugar, caramel, and candied fruits. taste has nice PNW hop grapefruit and mango, caramel, chocolate, vanilla, and maple syrup. flavor comes off sorta messy but otherwise tasty. palate is very clean, full, and alcohol is well hidden. the palate is pretty impressive when considering the 10types of hops, 100ibus, and 10%alc. I enjoyed an aged bottle more, as aging this beer provides balance and turns it into a wonderful american barleywine.3.9.

12oz bottle. this has aged nicely into an american barleywine. the oak aging is undertone and contributes some vanilla woody notes while the hops have mellowed but still offer grapefruit and pine and the malt has aged into some soft tar and tobacco with caramelly notes. aging nicely and tasting.3.9.

Poured a dark amber that was slightly hazy. The aromas are strong with this one! Definately lots of caramel malts with this. Sweet sweet sweet. Oh yeah, theres also 10 types of hops to cut through that sweetness. Huge hop flavor and aroma all throughout. Sort of heavy in the mouth, smooth finish with a nice warming feeling in the mouth. I was really thinking that all I was gonna taste in this was alcohol. I was wrong. Lots of flavor. Very nice stuff..

Bottle date of January, Sampled December 2006
Pours with a brilliantly clear, dark reddish tinted, ruby-amber color. The head when roused, forms an initially one-finger thick, frothy, amber dirtied, light tan color and actually sticks around for a bit of time. It is quite well carbonated, as evidenced by the ample bubbles rising up through my glass. The aroma is still quite hoppy, but seems a bit smoother than when I last sampled this brew. In fact when I first sampled this it was too raw and muddied to enjoy. Anyway the aroma has note of herbaceous pine mixed in with a dominant citrus character that reminds me of bergamot and tangerines. Some lightly sticky malt notes are here as well; noticeable as caramelized malt notes and a nice cracker-like grain character. Actually there are some quite concentrated malt notes here, deeply caramelized malt, even approaching a fresh malt extract type note and ample crystal malt aromatics are all here.

Sweet malt notes are noticeable upon my first sip, but it does not approach sticky, despite an ample body to this brew. It quickly takes on a harsh, astringent bitterness that leaves a sense of menthol lingering on in my taste buds. It almost has a solvent like note to it, I think it is just the hops, but it could be some fermentation derived note too. Unfortunately this has not mellowed much in the months since I had my first one. I am really surprised how harsh the bitterness is here. This beer should be big enough to stand up to the 100 IBUs, but it just doesn’t. There is quite a bit of chewy malt character here with caramelized malt sugars adding a sweet touch. It is also full bodied from all of the residual malts and even takes on a touch of caramelized bread or even a cracker-like malt character towards the end.

I keep coming back to that harsh bitterness though; it just seems to drive my sensory experience with this beer. It is not that the bitterness is too big so much as it is the wrong type that leans towards astringency and just plain harshness. Even the hot alcohol character seems to be drawn out by the bitterness. This is almost as bad as the Founders Black Rye I just dumped down the sink, but this one doesn’t even have the excuse that it is infected to save it. In the end this is just a train-wreck.

12 oz bottle thanks to my Secret Santa. Tried to pin down the style and failed. Do that alot with American Strongs. Thoguht maybe a barely wine, but not quite... anyway. Lots of dark fruit aromas and more in the flavor. Very hoppy in the finish as well. I liked it

22oz bottle via trade with Indiana_Red! - Thanks Ken! - Pours dark amber with a nice creamy tan head that stays pretty well and laces the sides of the glass. Aromas of caramel malts along with some pine. Flavors of caramel, raisin, pine, grapefruit, lots of earthy notes, and some spice at the finish. Alcohol is well covered and this has a very soft mouthfeel due to the carbonation and the creamy head. Well balanced and easy to drink for a beer of this magnitude.. Pretty interesting brew..

Fairly dark amber with a small head. Surprizing malt arom considering the hop profile on the label. Seems more like a B.W. Good balance of hops and malts. Nice.