Mendocino Eye of the Hawk Select Ale

Brewed by Mendocino Brewing Company
Style: American Strong Ale
Hopland, California USA

Malty carmel and nut aroma. Orange body with Decent head that disipated quickly. Sweet rich flavor of barley malt. Easy on the palate with a dry finish. Decent beer.

Orange and yeast aroma, some fusal notes; small dissipating head; murky amber body; tangy up-front bitterness followed by a simple, not overly sweet, but somewhat thick palate; more finishing bitterness; a bit acidic and slightly sour; this isn’’t bad, but it’s actually pretty boring for such a big beer

Pours an orange gold amber with tinges of red. Medium sized white head. Big malt aromatics with complementary floral and spicy hop tones. Smooth malty nose, followed by a subtle floral hop bitterness and some fruity esters. Esters and spicy hop components merge with a slight alcohol heat to form the finish. Mouthfeel is smooth and fairly crisp for the style.

A beautiful pour: Ruby/amber with a medium, frothy head; head disappears rather quickly, leaving no lacing. Pleasant malty aroma with dark fruit and caramel. Flavor is heavily malty with light caramel and very light hop bitterness through the finish; barely sour; just a hint of alcohol warmth. Thick but sticky, yet somehow watery at the same time; I’m perplexed. Never would have guessed it was 8% alcohol. Very drinkable.

12 oz bottle. Not exactly sure what Mendocino is doing with this beer. Clear amber with a small head. Aroma is dusty with some tart orange. Taste is sour with a weird bitterness. Not balanced at all. Malt doesnt taste right either. Just weird.

An uninteresting slightly-red brown in the glass with a diminishing off-white head. Aromas are beery -- yeast and hops. There is a hop bite, but the taste quickly fades to soapy, sour and then a sweet, syrupy finish. The taste here was just all over the map. Palate is long enough, but similarly varied.

Deep copper/amber with almost no head despite a vigorous pour. Aroma is mostly earthy with some spice and a bit of citrus. Good malt backbone in the aroma as well, but nothing unique. Body is slightly heavy with a slight astringency and bitterness in the end. flavor is loaded with pale malts and bland crystal malts with a bit of hops- nothing spectacular.

a slightly cloudy hamster-pelt or pumpkin pie orange. the head is like a varied scattering of sawdust on the floor after a chain saw killer shreds an armoire thinking the victim was inside. ;-) it has a sticky papaya aroma, a note of sulphur like a burnt match head, dry brown rice, with something green and crisp in there too-- like asparagus maybe. the party begins with a reasonably matched dialogue between over-sweetened malts and hops tasting like old, beginning to sour oranges. but the hops get tired, claim they have a babysitter waiting, apologize and call it an early evening. after that, the bock-like malts go it alone, with a generally watery feel, sweet vanilla flavor, and some noticeable underscoring of alcohol. consuming a six pack of this over six different evenings, my impressions varied considerably from "bleh" to "whee!". go figure.