Livery Old Cedar English Strong Ale

Brewed by The Livery
Style: English Strong Ale
Benton Harbor, Michigan USA

Hand-bottled at the brewery: Poured a hazy copper color ale with a rather large head and good retention with some lacing. Aroma of bready yeast and caramel malt is somewhat enjoyable. Taste is unfortunately more dominated by bready yeast then the malt backbone, which I was I wasn’t expecting considering the style. Body is quiet full with good carbonation. Too much yeast and malt doesn’t’ come out enough which is what this style usually called for.

On cask at the Livery 8.20.09. Pours a clear darker honey color with no head. Sweet oxidized aged honey aroma, caramel, some toffee, rich and smooth. Smooth light toffee flavor, warming alcohol, whisky-like honey notes. Smooth bodied with low carbonation. lovely and seems authentically English to me.

Hand pull at the brewpub. Clear light orange with some dirty white head. The nose is dusty malts with some earthy hops. The flavor is pretty soapy. Watery body. Not a fan.

On cask at the livery. Clearer amber with small white head. Aroma is sweeter red fruit with ight spice and richness, some apricot and peach as well. Flavor is sweeter peach and banana with mild pine hops. Medium body with light carbonation. Very nice.

hazy amber color, respectable off white head, nice lace. spicy nose, hints of mal, dried fruit. mild. flavor follows nose, spicy, fruity, florally, with some maltiness under it all. medium bodied, a touch fizzy in the mouth, lighly bitter finish. not bad but not my cup of tea. i can do with a bit less flowers and spice and more hops and alcohol. rayboy01 snagged the first bottle off the livery bottling line to share at a mug club meeting.

Bomber from mr. B-B-B 63. Thanks Mike. Pours orangey with a tan head. Nose is sweet hopped with some apple. Taste is sweet, bittered and all in all decent.

Sampled @ the cask tent of GTMW ’09 - Pours amber with a medium head. Aroma is of apples and oak. Taste is the same -- a bitter apple flavor mellowed out with the oak and hop finish. An odd beer, but one I’d like to try again, as I’ve liked everything I’ve had from The Livery so far.

RAYBOY01 brought a bottle of this (the Livery’s first) to the Flossmoor Station Mug Club tapping last night. (A good thing, too, since we hardly had enough to drink, what with the FS DIPA, some stout, and a homebrewed Belgian Ale, as well as a pump-priming Dortmunder at the beginning of the evening.) This poured a slightly hazed light copper body with a respectable head that laced the glass nicely. The aroma had orchard fruit with floral and minty hops along with a whiff of alcohol. The malt came through in the flavor as biscuity with a dab of toffee and had a light spiciness that blended well with the subtle hopping. Pretty decent brew.