Southern Tier Cuvée Series 1

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

I don’t know what a cuvee is, but this tastes great. Big sweet malty backbone, tastes similar to a young barleywine. Southern Tier is quickly becoming my new favorite brewery.

Bomber from Jason’s in Ellicott City, MD. Pours hazy reddish-amber color with a one-finger off-white head. Aroma is sweet caramel malt, oak, nuts, and fruitiness. Flavor is very sweet but not too much so. Caramel malt, toffee, bing cherries, almonds, and oak. Smooth on the palate with medium body. Only mildly syrupy. Good stuff overall, not nearly as bad as others would have me believe.

Bottle. NIce amber with off white head. Sweet aroma of melasses, honey, raisins, dates, caramel, coconut, apricot, wood, vanilla and a little alcohol. Flavour is also sweet with caramel, raisins, vanilla, wood and alcohol. It has a sudden, fruity tartness in the cheeks which tranforms into i more apparent and direct bitterness. Complex beer with a good balance in the aging. I really enjoyed this beer.

Bomber courtesy of Tweety. Has a strong oak aroma on the the nose. Alnong with sweet caramel and vanilla. Orange body with off white head. Flavor definently had the roasted coconut, toast and was sweet and rich. Thick body texture. Swettness and a dry oak wood lingered on the palate good nightcap.

Enjoyed from a 22oz bomber in a tulip glass. The beer pours a medium to lightish amber color with no head to speak of. Aromatic notes of wood, vanilla, and a bit of honey come through, as does high crystal malt character. The palate is sweet, showing a combination of malt character in the approach and mid-palate, and transfereing at about that point to very distinct notes of wood and vanilla, befor a slightly sweet and very long-lasting finish. No hop presence is detectable, which, given the complexity added by the wood, is not necessarily a detraction. The finish also brings a warming character in the throat and esophagus from the alcohol. Overall, nicely done

Bottle at Chriso pre GBBF tasting 09. Gold/amber with lasting beige head. Sweet Belgian influenced beer with some herb. Not great to be honest, some tea flavour.

Bomber. Hazy, deep burnt orange. Nice lasting disc of bubbles and some drippy lace. Nose is animal cracker, metallic brandied fruit, and a hint of wood. Flavor is caramel brandy, mixed light and dark fruits, and some bitterish oak. Medium-heavy body is smooth, chewy and tingly with alcohol. Quality brew but too much alcohol and sweetness in the aroma and taste. Almost like one of those rough Bad/Mad Elf English barleywines.

Pours a ring of beige head with a golden-amber body. Malt, caramel, weak hop aroma. Malt, floral, sweet like a pineapple flavor. Not too dry.