3.4 AROMA 7/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 14/20
Verre de dégustation, provenant d’un fût, dégusté au Winter Warmer Montréal 2010 (Montréal, QC). Arôme: Légère odeur d’houblons et de caramel. Apparence: La couleur est blonde voilée. Présence d’un mince col mousseux et d’une fine dentelle sur le verre. Saveur: Goût d’houblons et de caramel avec une pointe d’alcool. Durée moyenne de l’arrière goût. Palette: Le corps est moyen avec une texture légèrement minérale. Moyenne effervescence en bouche. Arrière goût légèrement houblonné. (Rating #3485)
2.9 AROMA 6/10 APPEARANCE 2/5 TASTE 6/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 12/20
Sampled at Winter Warmer Montreal 2011. Muddy orange with a thin white head. Aroma is alcohol, caramel, biscuits and herbal hops. Flavor is caramel, alcohol and herbal hops with a very bitter finish. The malt based is overshadowed by the bitterness. Medium body.
3 AROMA 4/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 13/20
Aroma of faint hoppy smells, but they’re hard to pick out. Has a decent foggy brown body with little head. Flavour is a great mix of hops and a malty middle; average palate. It’s very nice for a barley wine to be so drinkable and rather soft.
3.5 AROMA 8/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 14/20
An orange amber ale with a thick resilient light moka head. A nice hoppy and sweet caramel aroma, with citrus notes, resinous, very west coast, very IPA. In mouth, a good malt base with sweet treacle, floral hops, pinhey, oily mouthfeel...this is more of an imperial IPA...still, good. On tap at Vices et Versa, Feb. 12 2010.
3.5 AROMA 7/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 15/20
My Bottom Line:
This American-style Strong Ale is the setting for the showdown between citrusy, leafy and resinous hops and sucre d’orge-like Frontenac malt dextrins, forming a potent sipper the likes of which we rarely taste in our little beer world.
Further Personal Perceptions:
-A sheet of foam recedes to a ring atop the cloudy orange-y amber.
-Aromatic hops are forthcoming, but could be better expressed if the intention is indeed to make them shine that much.
-This aroma is more that of a Double IPA’s, with the citrusy hops (with orange-like tones) dominating the cereal character, but once tasted, there are enough residual sugars to take this out of DIPA territory.
-There are lots of bittering hops in here, of the resinous and earthy kind.
-Carbonation is cushy and the body portly.
-The cereal presence is outgoing, developing honeyed and lightly caramelized notes.
-Alcohol bites in the second half of each sip.
-There is balance in the intensity.
-Grape bubblegum ghosts peer from the nose upon warming.
-I’m not sure sure American hop varietals and Frontenac malts are the most harmonious combo since both tend to vye for supermacy in the flavor profile. Nonetheless, you can’t say this is poorly made or insipid. It’s actually a very decent American-Québécois Barley Wine and a rather unique one at that. Imagine Bièropholie’s first Vin d’Orge, but hopped like a Double IPA and you might have an idea of what this can be.
On tap at Vices et Versa.
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