Southern Tier Cuvée Series 1

Brewed by Southern Tier Brewing Company
Style: American Strong Ale
Lakewood, New York USA

Bottled. Orange color. Canned peach and oak in the aroma. Full bodied. oaky and alcoholic. Dried fruit and peach. Malty, some flowery, earthy and peppery hops, lingering on in the aftertaste. Nice beer, maybe lacking some balance.

This is the kind of beer where economics and taste collide. For the record, I think I paid $16 for this bomber at Chevy Chase Wine and Spirits here in Washington D.C. Chevy Chase tends not to be horribly overpriced. 22oz bomber pours a translucent light brown, gold with a thin, ringing white head. Fizzy, visible carbonation. Aroma is... well... not there? Slightly spicy, slightly sweet in the nose, but not a whole lot that’s distinguishable. Flavor is almost the same, sweet and a little Belgian-y with some light mandarin orange, a touch of coriander, and more sweetness. Medium bodied and sweet on the palate. When you buy an oaked beer that’s 11% ABV you expect to get something, ANYTHING. This is completely forgettable, no oak, no alcohol, no hops, nothing complex, totally bland. Is it drinkable, sure, but at the price you pay it’s not worth it one bit. Skip it when you see it. Makes me wonder about the rest of this series as well.

ambrato scarico note legnose miele frutta tosta buon corpo legno etilico tostature leggero solvente

smell is of maple and other light oak tree whiffs on a summer day ... pretty bitter, but nice level of sweetness but funny, not balanced ... dark maple syrup colour .. i will age a year then throw the bottle at a predetermined friends face...hard...so hard i won’t be able to stand it....

(Bottle at Pikkulintu, Helsinki, on 2009-03-24 -- shared with Finwe, thanks!) Copper red and bit hazy. Very small white head. Malts, raisin and wood in aroma. Full bodied and dry palate with medium carbonation. Malts, wood, bit of sourness, little bit of raisin and hint of sweetness in taste, Dry and malty aftertaste.

Wood, oh so woody. Big aroma and big taste. Not too complex a bit sweet. Heavy sticky molasses. Some dark fruit mixed in on the taste to balance it out.

Bottle shared at the Smoke from the Oak release. Pours a clean deep brownish amber with a thin white head. Aromas of sweet caramel, and spice. Body is medium to thick, with more of the sweet caramel coming back.

22. Pours a crystal clear, richly honeyed medium amber under a thick and creamy and quite persisten off-white head. Pour this in a trappist glass and take the picture that’ll be on flyers advertising your next ten tastings--it’s really pretty. (The RB photo as of this writing is accurate-looking, and it’s fine, but it doesn’t do it justice). Big vanilla and wood nose. It’s got that heavy oak note that almost makes the wood smell like a fruit. I could buy what the brewer is selling here--coconut, almonds, biscotti, honeysuckle. But I could also buy just saying it smells like barrel oak. Creamy body, getting pretty high on the thick side. The mid-palate really just tastes like vanilla and oak, not much in the way of beer flavor. Thank goodness the oak tastes like a whole bunch of different things. They’re right about that dry finish, though. This is another well-made beer, and quite a job of work is represented here, right down to the packaging. But in the glass, it’s actually just ho-hum. I’d be surprised to see a real wide deviation on this one; it doesn’t seem like a love it or hate it beer at all. More of a thought it was OK or thought it wasn’t too bad kind of beer.