Ommegang Inauguration Ale (Obamagang)

Draft at Ommegang Dinner at Capital Ale House Midlothian on 11-4-2009. Really the only new one there of the 5 beers since I have a bottle already. Dark pour. Short beige head. Opaque, ruddy brown. Aroma is chocolate, chocolate covered cherries, tart fruit, and sweet malt. Taste is pure chocolate covered cherries along with sweet malts, caramel, light spice and tart fruit. Very tasty! Body is creamy with a medium-full palate. Light carbonation. Ends with more chocolate and cherries, spice, dusty yeast notes, tart fruit and sweet malts. Very nice. Glad I got to try this one.

On tap at rattle n hum during beer week, ommegang night. Exactly as described... A blend of stout, porter, and kreik. Shaved cocao and a bit or almond.

(BCTC, draft) Medium tan head atop cola dark brown body. Aroma is moderately sweet, bittersweet chocolate, cherry, light funk. Taste is moderately sweet, bittersweet chocolate, some earthy, light cherry. Smooth medium body.

Tap at Harvest Fest. Pours deep brown with brown head. Aroma is chocolate and graham crackers. Medium bodied, and very smooth on the palate. Flavor is mostly chocolate with roasty coffee notes. Finishes sweet. I don’t know about any kriek really being in there. Very good nevertheless. Shame this isn’t sold.

Chocolate with cherry notes both in flavor and aroma, nice dry finish, pretty decent beer.

Draft notes from DRE. Pours blackish wih dark brown edges and off-khaki head. Nose is roasty dark malt, chocolate, cherry. Tastes dark malty, with a lof of cacao and dark choc syrup flavors, plus some spicy notes and a tart cherry/blackberry undercurrent. Complex and well balanced, this one was unique and enjoyable.

Ommegang Inauguration Ale (Obamagang) is a hazy brown ale with a thin, dense brown sugar-colored head. The retention and lacing is very good. It smells like chocolate and coffee, a little leafy and sweet, like molasses. It’s medium bodied with a mineral texture. The finish is a little astringent. It tastes quite chocolaty and it’s well balanced with a pretty green hop bitterness. It’s a good, sturdy stout. [Sampled at the 2009 Flower City Brewers’ Fest at Frontier Field, Rochester, NY]

Cloudy muddy brown with a light tan head. What a stout should look like. Nose was full of sensual cocoa with hints of holiday spice and, well, silky smooth chocolate. Nice, what I would call, belgian stout flavors...like, I get a bit of some banana-like yeast esters under those silky chocolatey goodness. The hops, and they’re there...are 100% balancing the chocolately malts...not non-existent like some cheap stouts and not overly hoppy like all the bullshit west coast stouts...just perfectly balanced. I dug it fo sho...though it was one only a few decent beers at the flour city brewers fest in rochester and I had been drinking piss before and after it....I still think it could stand pretty firmly on its own.