Reunion - A Beer For Hope 2007

Formerly brewed at Bison Brewing Company
Style: Brown Ale
Berkeley, California USA

Name: Reunion - A Beer For Hope
Date: 04/18/2007
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting
Vintage: 2007

clear dark brown, huge creamy beige head, drippy lace, dry chocolate aroma with light hops and a bit of astrengent soapy character, lots of bitter flavor up front followed by rich dry chocolate, lots of the earthy character blends well with the dry chocolate but offers no real character, too bland

Aroma: 6/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 6/10; Palate: 6/10; Overall: 11/20
Rating: 3/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: *4

22oz bomber. Sweet candy licorice along with some nutty aroma as well. Brown body held to light a ruby red body color. Big tan head on pour. Carbination brought head down to normal head size for a beer. Head is foamy and the cover over body left a blanket of lacing on the glass. Decent moderate sweet caramel and carbination noticable in flavor. Smooth on palate and a sweetness lingers there also. Good Brew.

Bottle shared with Degarth. Thanks Joe. Pours a watery looking brown body with ruby highlights. Small, lasting light tan head that is very rocky and leaves great lacing. Hops, spices, nuts, malt and toffee dominate the aroma. Flavor is toffee, nuts, malts and spicy hops. Very hoppy take on a brown ale. Medium bodied, soft carbonation. Somewhat sticky mouthfeel. Finish is bitter and medium length. Solid, and interesting.

Bottle... Murky, prune juice-colored ale with a large, rocky, khaki head. Incredible retention and ink-blot lacework. Malty, nutty aroma with gobs of caramel, a pat of butter and very rich, beyond creamy, milk chocolate. Malty, sweet flavor with plenty more caramel, chocolate and mild, earthy hops. Full-bodied with a 2%-milk mouthfeel and soft carbonation. Bitter-sweet, chocolaty finish. Cheers to xnoxhatex for shipping me the bottle!

Tasted at the woodshop tasting 2.0, a hugely carbonated brew! after it settled, here’s what happened, Darker pour, some sweetness,caramel, fruit, bitterness, somewhat mixed up, but a nice effort, for a good cause, drinkable, but slowly, and not so enjoyable.

Quite well carbonated, the beer produces a four-finger thick, brownish tinged, tan colored head without even trying. The beer sits in my glass a dark brown color, but shows a bright, concentrated ruby amber color when held up to the light. The aroma is distinctly fruity and hoppy with notes of candied orange peel, grapefruit, raisins and figs. Underneath this are malt driven aromas of toasted malt, dusty cocoa powder, crushed soda crackers and browned caramelized brown sugar. The nose is a nice mixture of bright hop aromatics and malt character.

Sweet up front, the beer is made more sweet than it is by the citrusy hop notes. Towards the middle the beer becomes considerably drier, actually even a touch tart. It finishes with an astringent, roast grain character and an ample, green, hop bitterness. A bit on the fizzy side, but that is easily taken care of by a few swirls of my glass. The combination of the carbonation, the green hop character and the dark malt can at times be jarring; The flavors when taken individually though are quite tasty and character, so much so that this beer actually works more than it doesn’t. The malt character is quite caramelized tasting, plus there is a significant dusty, browned malt / cocoa not here as well. An interesting beer, it is tasty, but it certainly be much more integrated than it is.

This bottled brew from a bottle shop poured a extremely large sized head of foamy finely sized light brown colored bubbles that were mostly lasting and left behind a transparent softly carbonated dark red brown colored body. The mild aroma was brown malt. The mouth feel was tingly at the start and at the finish. The flavor contained notes of a lot of hops and burnt malt. Delicious and one I would certainly buy again.

sorry, pretty uninspired for a multiple myeloma beer. love the fight though. a more flavorful uninspired brown ale. alcohol almost absent in flavor. not much happening, some hops but mostly just sticky malt flavor. pretty good deal at a bar for $5.