Magic Hat Fat Angel

Formerly brewed at Magic Hat Brewing Company
Style: English Pale Ale
South Burlington, Vermont USA

(12 oz bottle: Obtained in trade with jah noth, thanks Dan!) Nothing too exciting going on with this beer. It’s lightly fruity early, lightly nutty late, lightly bitter throughout, and lightly flavorful in general. A bit of floral essence in the nose, but also a hint of fruitiness. The beer shows a consistent light-medium body from start to finish. Pale amber in color and somewhat hazy from bottle conditioning. The tall whitish head settles to a ring, leaving no lacing. An okay beer, but clearly not one of Magic Hat’s best.

Bottle from a Magic Hat sampler 12-pack split with blankboy, HogTownHarry and GregClow. Nice dark copper appearance but again, no head. Sale hops and malt in aroma. Well, it is almost a pale! Slightly hoppy taste, but again, quite stale. Watery and thin. Quenching, lingering bitterness. Not bad but pretty standard really - certainly the most mainstream beer from this sampler pack.

Bottle from a Magic Hat sampler 12-pack split with blankboy, HogTownHarry and tupalev. Orange-copper colour with no head. Aroma and flavour both fit the profile of an average pale ale, although the aroma in particular seemed a bit stale. I think the finish, which was dry and pleasantly bitter, was my favourite part of this one. Otherwise, it wasn’t very exciting.

Bottle shared with HogTownHarry, GregClow & tupalev. Pours a clear amber with a spare white fizzy head. Aroma of light hops, yeast, grain and sweet malt. Flavour of citrus, hops, fruit and sweet malt. Decent.

Bottle (12oz). Shared with blankboy, GregClow and tupalev - out of 2005 Magic Hat 12-pack. Poured mostly clear light copper, not much of a head. Aroma of sour, sharp grainy vegetal malt - I didn’t like it at all, although it smoothed out some on warming. Taste of slightly stale grapefruit pith hop bitterness, some very lightly roasted malt, quite a bit of grain - I was suprised that the vegetal nose didn’t translate to the taste. Average body and slightly astringent mouthfeel. Overall, apart from the nose, this is pretty decent.

I must admit that this bottle is old (maybe 7 months) and has been driven across country...through the south...in August. So my hopes were not high. Pours deep cloudy orange with a tight off-white head. The aroma is heavily esters from the English ale yeast (me thinks Ringwood? Did I hear that somewhere?) with a certain juiciness of fruit aromas, some peach and pineapple, and a large dosing a chewy malt. Diacetyl is in there, just not as noticeable as in some of there beers. Body is med-light. Apricot juicy flavors with a nice complex hop character. Lots of fruity hops. The finish is pleasantly drying and the beer is fairly clean. Not a ton of diacetyl, which I have detected in spades in some of their other beers. Nice English Pale.

Bottle. Please drink by end of: January. A clear caramel/amber pour with a thin light-tan head. Sweet caramel and malts in the subtle aroma. A little bit of sweet caramel flavors in the body, but it’s predominantly just VERY grainy and bitter and one-dimensional. A dry, bitter finish. Some sour tastes in there too. Light body. This is just a dull, boring beer.

light amber. Light grassy aroma. Flavor is light and thin, probably one of the worst i have had from magic hat. Not ssaying this is horible, it just isnt up to par.