Fish Tale Anniversary Ale - 10²

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

Bottle. [thank you, after4ever]
Beautiful pour, lovely deep red, very clea. Fine creamy yellowish head, disappearing slowly, lovely lacing. Wonderful creamy hops, fruitiness, slight oakiness. Wonderful mouthfeel. Flavour is encredibly bitter.Lots of hops, a good caramel sweetness and a wonderul note of the oak still present. Light warming viniousness. Very long bitter, hoppy, oaky finish.

2006 vintage thanks to old mr crow. Thanks Carl!!! Pour is a nice copper with auburn highlights. Creamy head, good lacing. Aroma is sweet malt, caramel, leather and oak. Very nice flavor. Hops still present, but subdued. Sweet and dry. Full body and a lasting finish.

In short: A rather fruity IIPA-like beer. Very good but felt a bit tired.
How: Bottle 12oz from after4ever. Thanks a lot Tom! Age unknown but consumed shortly after receiving it.
The look: Cloudy dark-orange with a short-lived off-white head
In long: Shy fruity nose. Taste consists mainly of fruity flavour well integrated into a smooth caramel. You’ve got orange peels, mangos, grapefruit, citrus. Fruity flavours dominate the caramel taste. As the beer warmed-up some foresty/pine-tree flavours were coming through. Finish is rather abrupt with a sharp bitterness if medium intensity and then nothing. This could have been an excellent beer but somehow the body and the hops felt very tired. This sense of freshness was totally lacking, actually I got quite the opposite. A good beer overall but it felt like was the 10th anniversary of my bottle.

Bottle from bitbucket - thanks! Hazy orange color with a medium head. Aroma is very sweet and malty with some decent citrus and pine hops, though not enough to really make the mouth water. Flavor was tilted too far towards the malt (yes, I know its not fresh) with a mixture of hop tastes. Not quite like some of the better hoppy strong ales that hold up very well after the strong hops fade. It also suffers from too many hop varietals in my opinion (similar to Sly Fox Oddessy) where the mixture takes away from individual hop flavors. Not bad at all, but sounded better from the description.

’07 bottle tasted Jan ’08.

Pours out a warm cloudy caramel-red with a small but tenacious tan head and sticky foamy lacing.

Nose of caramel, honey, some oxidizing hops (but not offensively strong), and the sort of perfumed....stuff....that fills those trinket stores that I’m scared to even go into with my wife. The joy is in the flavor and mouthfeel, though. It’s so smooth a sipper -- very mildly carbonated creamy and full on the tongue, not letting that 10% out until it reaches the back of my throat. The flavor is like a gentle American barleywine, kind sugars meeting Meyer-lemon hops that definitely stand up for themselves on the close but never try to bludgeon the palate. Watermelon hints in the middle, woody dryness through the close. Dang it’s hard not to just swig this one down. The whole exceeds the sum of the parts by a nice measure on this one. I’m quite impressed, and very interested to see how this one changes with age. In fact, I just finished this ’07 and I’m tempted to open my ’06 bomber. Nice - and well worth exploring further at various ages.

(12oz bottle) Purchased from Whole Foods in Seattle for $6.39. Lasting white foamy head with a deep orange body. Very perfumy hops, highly malted. Incredibly sweet. A lot like DFH 90 minute only unidimensional.

Pours orange with a thin head. Sweet malty aroma somewhat similar to a fruity barley wine. Some earthy hops as well. This has a ton of stuff going on in here. Sweet and fruity with discernible toffee and caramel malts and a plethora of hop flavors. Most noticeably earthy bitterness. Hops linger as an alcoholic warmth comes in. This was well put together and vary good stuff.

[844-20071122] 355mL (w/ blankboy, jerc). Thick grainy barley grain bitter hops aroma. Clear, dull dark red body with a quick bubbly tan head. Heavy Belgian yeast style flavour has wood and citrus pip bitterness. Medium-full body. Nice, and you can certainly feel the alcohol.