New Albanian Malcolms Old Setters Ale

Pours dark brown with a thin off white head. Aroma is big caramel, toffee, with hints of wood and chocolate. Flavor is full of caramel malt, with hints of chocolate, toffee, and oak. Good stuff.

Cask at the Great Taste of the Midwest (8/9/08): Pours a semi-transparent dark hazy copper mahogany with a thin ring of off-white head. Aroma of sweet caramel and toasty grain with some light fruity esters. Body starts fairly full and lightly sweet with some oaky alcoholic warmth toward a drier finish. Fairly complex and enjoyable, but could age a little more.

REAL ALE TENT @ GTMW 2008: Deep amber with a very good head. The aroma has notes of roasty and caramel malts and twangy fruity esters. The taste has an apple and pear character over a sweet malt base and woody finish. The mouth feel is warming and smooth. Wow a shockingly good brew.

Draft at Gravity Head. Poured clear dark brown color with an average creamy off-white head that mostly lasted with good lacing. Moderate nutty, fruity and alcohol aroma. Medium body with a slick texture. Medium woody bittersweet flavor with a medium to heavy bittersweet finish that was moderate to long in duration. This is a complex solid beer.

On firkin at Rich O’s. Gravity Head ’08. Dark lifeless black-brown with no head, maybe a suggestion of bubbles at first. Dry fruity oaky raisins over alcohol, small vanilla oak. Simple nose. Dead flat mouth, barely the suggestion of a bubble of carbonation or two. Sweet dry alcohol sweetness. Dark malt. some small oaky fruit driness. Alcohol is obvious. Not a ton of complexity, but not unpleasant to drink either.

On tap at RichO’s: Deep brown pour with a thin, mocha head. The nose is rather subtle for this big beer, noting sweet caramel and plum. Big, chewy body. This almost seems spiced as the malt bill is just gigantic. Lots of citrusy hops add a strange mix to the malty body. Finishes rindy and sugary. This is so big that it becomes muted overall.

Cask at GTMW. One note, whenever I see a bunch of cask’s at a beer festival, I have to ask, why are there bags of ice on top of the barrels? The beer comes from the bottom. Pours a even brown with plenty of sediment. The aroma was very woodsy. Cedar was prevailent. Dark fruits also came through. The flavor was full of dark fruits, figs, cherries. Has a bit of a warming factor, I think due to the alcohol. A nice clean, semisweet finish. Very well made.

On tap at GTMW 2007

I’m shocked nobody has yet rated this gem. While it did not have the kick of the barrel aged imperial stouts/barleywines it was also exceptionally drinkable and almost perfect for the temperature. The fact that it was on cask added another layer of complexity. Here’s to hoping that it is available in the future on tap at the brewpub. Everyone should get a chance to try it.

Aroma / Appearance - A medium brown toned body was very cloudy with chunks of sediment suspended throughout. The nose reminded me of a bag of cedar chips blended with cherry wood. Figs and a nutty base made it nice at first. The one drawback (not really a flaw) is that as it heated up it become less pleasant. As with the Darkness though I’ll blame the conditions for that.

Flavor / Palate - Figs dominate the initial sip which then morphs into cherries and a vague fruitiness that can’t be pinned down to anything in particular. It warms the throat a bit but is not so intense to render it only sippable. The dry caramel aftertaste imparts a bitterness that is balanced by the woody finish. This was a nice wrapup for the day despite the mild booziness which seemed to be a theme for the day.