Pelican Bridal Ale

Brewed by Pelican Pub & Brewery
Style: Bière de Garde
Pacific City, Oregon USA

Hazy amber with tiny off white head. Sweet vinious aroma with overripe fruits, caramel, plums and toasted malt. Sweet fruity aroma with toasted malt, caramel and alcohol notes. Somewhat watery for a beer of this style. Ends sweet with warming alcohol.

Bottled - tasted blind. A hazy amber beer with a thin orangey head. The aroma is sweet malty combined with notes of over ripe fruits. The flavor is sweet with dusty notes of hops, over ripe fruit, and lots of alcohol, leading to a dry bitter finish.

From bottle #4 at sk8vikings American blind tasting. Pours hazy orange with a fully diminished off-white head. Dry wooden and malty dense aroma. Dry malty and mildly spiced and caramel dense flavour. Spiced and malty finish. Dry.

#4 Bottle [Sk8viking great American blind tasting] Small fizzy beige head that mostly diminished. Hazy amber color. Spare display of lacework. Aroma of lovely bread, vinous, fruit and raisins, caramelized. Surprisingly light texture compared to the aroma. But still a very nice teasing beer. Medium bodied with a soft to almost flat carbonation and mild alcoholic texture. Moderated sweet flavor with a hint of bitterness. Sweet malty bread and light dry finish. 8 / 3 / 7 / 3 / 15 = 3.6

Sampled at Paul’s Hoboken Gathering. Reddish amber in color. Aroma- a good deal of caramel, light belgian yeast. Taste is has caramel, some toasted malts- some light citrus, and a light amount of belgian yeast. medium bodied. pretty nice.

Bottle from John’s Market. Dated Oct 5. No air in the bottle, the cork is touching the beer. The got stuck on the way out, cracked and broke in half. Had to use a corkscrew to remove it. Light but lasting head. Dark reddish copper beer. Aromatic caramel malt aroma. Flavour is straight forward caramel with European yeast. As you get into it some soft spice appears in the finish and it comes across a little more complex than the first interpretation.

OCT 05 Bottling. Deep amber with a thin cream colored head. Aroma is hoppy, with alcohol (almost like a barleywine) with a dried fruit maltiness. Taste is caramel, light toffee, and nice maltiness. Really reminds me of JW Lees, or a oak aged barleywine that is a much lower alcohol content.

October 2005 Bottle Date, Sampled January 2008
A mix of spicy, really peppery notes and oxidized malt character reach my nose as I pour this beer. The head musters up a frothy, amber tinged, tan colored head the peaks just over a finger in height. The beer is a brilliantly clear, cranberry red color. A deeper inspection of the aroma yields aromas of ginger, light sherry, prune, and a substantial malt character of toasted bread crust, touches of soda crackers, touches of caramelized malt and a nice grain character. I really like how softly spicy (really a white pepper note) the aroma is and the initially noticed oxidation is not nearly as present once you get down to it.

Somewhat sweet up front, the beer has a bit of heft to it up front but seems to thin out as you move to the finish. Oxidized malt flavors provide a touch of sherry and seem to accent a pepper bite in this beer. A medium-low level of carbonation provides a touch of an offset to the malty body. Quite a bit of caramelized malt character is here, though without contributing overly to the sweetness of this brew. A touch tart in the finish, as well as having a light, though noticeable bitter hop bite. This has an interesting woodiness to it too; slightly tannic, touches of buttery-oak and even something like vanilla, a mix of flavors I was not expecting from this un-oaked beer (though these notes are certainly soft and subtle).

This has survived quite well in the two-and-a-half years since being bottled. It is definitely starting to show some oxidation, but not overly so and this seems to somehow accentuate the spicy pepper note that I like so much in this brew. There is not much else I could ask from a 2+ year old Bier de Garde; a near perfect mix of lagered, yet spicy, malty, lightly aged character; though of course I will by saying that it could use a touch more complexity.

Purchased via mail order: <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/Places/ShowPlace.asp? Solutions