Otter Creek Alpine Ale

Pours copper with a thin off white head. Smells sweet and fruity. Tastes earthy and sweet. Basic amber ale.

Bottle. Pours a honey copper body with an off white head. Sweet caramel malt, lightly wheaty with fruity esters, pine, soap and paper. This was all over the place.

Bottle (2006). Pours copper with a huge beige head. Aroma is caramel, apple, and general fruity esters. Medium body. Flavor is again fruit that’s a bit on the tart side, peach and apricot, caramel, maybe a bit of brown sugar. A bit old, not awful but not that good either.

This is the worst of the Otter Creek selections I’ve tried to date. It’s geared for the cold weather, and I suppose I’d enjoy it a bit more if I was out in the cold and snow as it is quite warming. It pours a brown, amber looking color, medium to small tanish head and a little bit of lacing on the glass. Nothing too outstanding. The aroma wasn’t bad, malty and a brown sugary smell. Definitely malty and sugary but not very well balanced with not the most pleasant aftertaste. Drinkable, but not much more than that

Peachy colour and malt in aroma. Thin, very dry, and astringency in finish. Malt and fruit but not very drinkable.Perhaps I would enjoy this better if I didn’t have a beer in a long while.

Courtesy of Degarth. Pours hazy copper with weak head. The first whiff of the aroma is inviting with a pulse of aged muted pine hops, some mild dark fruit, grains, malts and late in the draw mild vegetation. Hmm. The taste has an initial blunted spike of pine hops followed by blended sweet malts and lightly roasted malts. It ends with some hoppiness and an annoying level of soapiness.

2 year old vintage bottle courtesy of Degarth.

amber, rusty colored body...1 finger off white head, loosely formed...nose of muted hops, cereal grains, light citrus candy, grassy notes and some caramel malts...flavor profile the same, a bit watery and bland throughout...light to medium bodied...soapiness wells in the back of the throat and continues to escalate...finish is soap, muted hops, some citrus and sweet grains...

A fresh sample could have yielded a better result, but honestly, from what I could taste and smell, even at this state, this was never more than an average beer.

Feb. 2007 - Amber ale? Pour was dark brown, very little head, some lacing. Aroma was of rotten cardboard. Taste was somewhat better. Well, if tasting like nothing is better than rotten cardboard, then it’s better. Very faint flavor of roasted malts, sweet malts and very mild hops...oh yeah, and just a tad of rotten cardboard. Man, these brewers and their winter ales...bad.