Victory Ten Years Alt

Brewed by Victory Brewing Company
Style: Altbier
Downingtown, Pennsylvania USA

Numerous bottles as extra’s. I think kramer, artusory, shadey. Anyway thanks to all. Dark copper, with minimal head. Caramel/toffe aroma up front with off-smelling fruit esters. Flavor much the same plenty of caramel, roasted grain, nuttiness, with more off fruity flavors. Becomes very harsh and astringent as it warms, really starts to detract from the score. Thin body and mouthfeel. Just another average beer.

Bottle. Caramel copper murky appearance, thin tan head. Nose of burnt oranges, bubble gum, sweet medicinal aromas, like pepto-bismol. Bitter up front, intensely bitter... some juicy orange hop flavors in there with the coarse, assertive palate... flavors of orange marmalade and burnt toast. But man, the palate... this is so not an altbier, not even close, are you kidding me? This is a freaking amber ale that’s been hopped up. Reminds me of the funky, chewy organic brews that Roots puts out in Portland. As just pure flavor and aroma goes, this is OK... has some good juicyness, but the hop profile is a disaster.

Poured a clear dark copper color with a decent initial off-white, fluffy head, that laced decently. Aroma was hard to pick up at a serving temp of 50C, only citrus and light caramel. The flavor was strong, lots of caramel and light toffee. Roastedness was underplayed. Balanced by a significant amount of hops. Claims to have only German hops in it, but there was definitely a citrus twist to the hop flavor. Hot alcohol presence for an alt. An alt with extreme maltiness and hoppiness, much like a dIPA take on the alt style. This was clearly an ale and did not come across with any lager crisp/cleanness. Finish wasn’t really dry enough for my liking on the alt style. Hard to rate within style, because I’m most familiar with and very fond of the standard alts. This "sticke" was much like the Uerige Doppelsticke I’ve had, which is a rare style even in the Dusseldorf area. How to compare this to a bottle of the Uerige that travelled over the Atlantic? Not bad, but sticky sweet and somewhat cloying, despite the hoppiness.

Thanks to Argo0 for this one! Caramel brown body with a touch of haze under a choppy, tall, light tan head that sticks to the sides on the way down. Bready malt aroma. A touch of unpeeled cold bananas. Sweet with just a bit of hop bitterness at the end of the finish. Good body, but nothing really exciting overall.

12 oz bottle by 8/1/06. Bubbly rust with a foamy oatmeal head. Settles to a scum. Brown sugar hops with some lemon. A little dry leather. Biting carb sours to lemon peel and lingers. Pine and pepper. Medium body; leaves a vodka aftertaste.

Bottle. Head is initially small, frothy, light brown, mostly diminishing. Body is medium amber. Aroma is moderately malty (caramel, bread), lightly to moderately hoppy (apricot, grapefruit), moderately yeasty (dough), with a light note of toffee. Flavor is moderately sweet, lightly acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is lightly to moderately sweet, lightly acidic, moderately bitter. Medium body, watery texture, lively carbonation. Yeast-heavy nose, not very interesting.

Bottled. Best before 8/6. Beer is a murky medium orange-amber color with a large, frothy, off-white, mostly diminishing head. The aroma is sweetly malty with a light note of toasted grain and caramel, trace of puppy chow; Hoppy with a light note of resin/pine; Yeasty with dominating moderate-to-strong notes of dough; The flavor is moderately-to-heavily bitter, moderately sweet, lightly acidic with a long, moderately bitter/grippy, warm finish. The body is light, the texture is watery and the carbonation is lively.

From a 12 oz. long neck brown bottle with a blurb on the left side of label and enjoy by date, Aug/01/06. Made a tasty appearance, poured a hazy reddish copper with a large foamy beige head that settled into a thin foamy lacing, fair amount of sticking, medium carbonation. Had a nice roasted malty nose, nutty and fresh german dark bready with a good herbal spiciness. A malty crisp, slick, textured and creamy smooth medium bodied mouth feel, good drinkability. Deliciously malty, roasted nuts and grain bready, followed by a spicy herbal hoppiness, cutting just under the malts to help maintain balance, a nice warming alcohol presence shows up towards the end and a dryish spicy and malty finish with a herbal alcohol warmth lingering in the palate. An excellent Altbier from Victory, tasty and balanced, dangerously quaffable.