Full Sail Wassail

Brewed by Full Sail Brewing Company
Style: English Strong Ale
Hood River, Oregon USA

Pours dark chocolate brown, dark enough that it’s hard to tell if it’s cloudy or not, with a medium-thin beige head, very fine and lasting lacing. Aromas of toast and toffee, grass, pine and cherry. Medium-body, zesty, sharp, and pretty dry. Toast, pine and grass flavors, with hints of toffee, and spice. Good, straight-forward malt backbone and a fairly deep bitter aftertaste. A great winter ale for hop-heads.

Bottle pours dark brown with touches of red and a khaki colored head. Aroma smells of caramel, brown sugar, and peaches. Flavor shows the same with additional notes of grass, and pine. Overall body is oily, moderate to full with moderate carbonation and an earthy bitter finish. A simple but decent winter warmer for hop-heads.

Good Winter Warmer. This is a difficult style to pull off. Full Sail’s entry manages to provide an interesting flavor profile without overindulging in any particular Winter Warmer cliche. The beer pours dark brown with a healthy beige cap. Bubbles lace the glass as the liquid level falls. The aroma is Scottish Ale caramel sweet. There are some interesting fruit notes, apricots, peaches, etc. The flavor brings in a strong and very much appreciated bitter flavor. It’s not a huge beer or a dramatic beer, but it fulfills the aim of a Winter Warmer without looking to old standby of cloves and other pumpkin pie spices. Re-rated 12/10/09: Not quite as good as I remember.

12 oz bottle. Pours a deep mahogany with a tiny light tan head. Aroma of caramel, toffee and piney hops. The taste is mostly sweet and malty with a light bitterness that fades in towards the end. Medium body with mild carbonation and a long finish. This is a solid beer but I’m not too excited about it.

Aroma has pleasant esters reminiscent of Scottish-style ales. Cascade and/or other West-coast hops prevail over a thick caramel and toasted-malt base. Flavor is, however, quite green and hot. I would guess this beer was fermented warm. There’s a mildly astringent and off-putting character lurking in the background. It’s otherwise possible this beer is contaminated. Had similar issues with Full Sail’s Scottish-Ale, which was acidic and overwhelmed with acetaldehyde. Whatever it is, it reminds me of my earliest homebrew batches. Substantial dark crystal malt does well to mask this flaw, with its dark fruit and toffee flavors. I also detect the grassy, oily trademarks of dry-hopping. Beer is full and malt-balanced and just barely sweet. Definitely will veer away from this brewery in the future, I’m sorry to say. This would only be an average winter ale without its flaws.

A ruby colored beer with a small head. The aroma is sweet & malty. The taste is sweet, caramel, & just a touch of hop bitterness in the end.

Poured dark brown with a moderate tan head. Has a sweet, nutty aroma with a little bit of pine hops and an earthiness. Flavor is brown sugar sweetness and more nuttiness, plus a grassy, earthy bitter hop finish. Not a bad brew by any means, but the character of the hop felt out of balance with the rest of the beer.

Warm and malty. Robust and roasted flavors. Has a subtle hoppy taste with hints of dried fruits. Has a nice dark color and a very faint off white foam head. Not too bad.