Northwoods Red Cedar Ale

Brewed by Northwoods Brew Pub
Style: Amber Ale
Eau Claire, Wisconsin USA

Date: 09/08/2007
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting, Cellar Party

hazy dark amber, wispy beige head, strong sweet dyactyl aroma, slick body, rich buttered caramel flavor, light balancing bitterness, would go great with microwave popcorn, or on microwave popcorn,

Aroma: 3/10; Appearance: 6/10; Flavor: 4/10; Palate: 4/10; Overall: 6/20
Rating: 1.8/5.0
Drinkability: 5/10
Score: 4

Bottle from brewpub: Pours a transparent amber orange with a thin, wispy-lacing off-white head. Aroma of strange tart sauerkraut and toasted caramel malt. It took a while for me to get past the aroma and actually take a sip. Body has some faintly sweet grainy notes and earthy bittering hops toward a watery finish. It seems infected from the aroma, but I don’t taste it as much in the body, although it is pretty watery.

Copper color with a smaller beige head. Caramel and licorice aromas. Lots of licorice aromas. Licorice finds its way into the flavors as well. To much licorice for me.

Sample at the brewpub. Light clear maple with just a touch of lasting foam...simple caramel nose...sour, bitter, woody in the body...dry, cardboardy finish, medium body.

Picked up a single 12-oz bottle at brewpub. Pours a clear brown caramel brew with a fast dissolving white head and no lacing. Some film ring on edge of glass. Nose is very light, just a touch of caramel malt and some grassy hops. Taste average carbonated, some flowery hops, caramel malt and a very light bitter finish. The finish palate is a little watery. An average amber/brown ale.

Bottle thanks to Skyview! Poured clear medium orange with a short, uniform cap of beige head. Aroma was of over-the-top artificially-sweetened caramel, lightly-toasted.. not sure where the "high hop aroma" is, but there was mild pine and grassy action going on. Flavor was nuttier than the aroma.. still sweet with lots of caramel and some fruit juices flare just before the finish.. mild herbal and grassy bitterness. Lighter-bodied, somewhat watery on the front half of the palate.. left a slick, but medium-length sweet finish. This was OK, and certainly drinkable.

Amber color with no head. Smells, and tastes, like a rotten pine tree. Slightly bitter.

In the bottle thanks to hurrisnow. This does indeed pour somewhat reddish in color, but I really get no cedar aroma at all. No head. A bolus of diacetyl emerges if you try to smell this. Butter, rancid butter. The flavor reveals some serious fermentation temperature mistakes here. I’m glad I only had to drink about 2 ounces of this frankenstein. Crapola indeed.