Alley Kat Unity Brew

Brewed by Alley Kat Brewing Company
Style: Amber Ale
Edmonton, Canada

Serve in English pint, Shaker

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Unity Brew 2010 pours a deep copper color with a thick tan head. Retention was moderate and produced a large amount of lacing. The aroma is predominantly of caramel and lots of hops. There is also a bit of fruity notes in it - dark fruit the malts are also apparent but overpowered by the other notes. There is definitely a nutty aspect to the smell. The taste is sweet and malty and there is something that makes me want to say "dark fruits" here but I’m not sure that is exactly what it is. There is hint of citrus and spices present. You can taste something nutty - I say hazelnuts there. Overall the taste is great but it is difficult to pinpoint which may be a result of the collaborative effort on the recipe. Tough to pigeonhole this one but easy to enjoy it. It is medium bodied and light to medium carbonation. It has a smooth feel going down and is very easy to drink. Tastes quite fresh. I was so busy sipping it to try and isolate the flavors that it was gone in no time.

First of all, I really wanted to like this, but it just was not in the cards. Maybe a bad bottle, but, it poured and looked fine. Decent Head, light amber color. However the smell is where this went off track. Gym socks and cheap cheddar was overpowering, and unfortunately this highjacked the taste and finish. Seriously i wanted to beable to enjoy it, but I am really just hoping this was an off bottle...

Bottle. Pours clear red/amber, medium off-white head, lacing is solid or better. Nose is buttery (not a good sign), fresh rank Cascadey hops (a VERY good sign), some mixed toffee/fruity/almost smoky malt nots, though no roasted notes... Flavours are buttery, some caramel, fruit, nice bitterness. Not really digging this... Too much butter.... With time, this shows less butter, more spicy hop bitterness, but I wouldn’t buy this again. I love the idea, and I REALLY want to like this, but my mouth feels like it just got coated in margarine, and I can’t like that...

Bottle purchases on 01/04/2010. Colour is dark orange, low-medium head. Nose: Yeasty forefront with splashes of over-ripe cantaloupe, Florida orange, cumin & slight pine. Taste: ligth sweet, medium bitter, medium sour. Wood, dust, hoppy evidence (more-so then the nose). Rather monotone. At least it was purchased for a good cause...

Bomber from Presario. A hoppy fuggles beer. A light reddish colour and cloudy. Soapy head. Surprisingly less than average mouthfeel from so many brewers chipping in. Big malt backbase. Good drinkability.

Pours clear copper.ruby with solid head with nice retention. Enticing aromas of grapefruit/resin balanced with some soft caramel. I was a little worried when I saw this was an amber ale - so much potential for bland, but this is really anything but. Bright fresh hoppy aromas penetrate throughout the sip - the grapefruit/resin again but more of a floral note comes in. Malt character is principally caramel, but there’s a bit of biscuit in there. Basically, this hits the hop/malt balance spot on.

bottle thanks to Kyle, pours light copper with a tall frothy light tan head. Aroma is nice cascade hops and toast. Flavor is nice and fresh tasting cascade hops on top of nice crisp clean nutty amber malts. Really a great session beer, for a good cause, what’s not to love?

Not the best beer ever. Was hoping for alot more out of a collaboration beer like this. Pretty boring amber ale. Pour is bright amber with a thin whittish cap. Aroma is light toasted malts, toffee, grass and mild hop. The taste is overall very bland.

Bomber Bottle. Pours a clear copper-colour with a thin but lasting pearl head. Sweet, earthy aroma. Tastes quite malty, notes of caramel, with an earthy sweet bitterness. Finishes with a bit of a pine-like bitterness. Good mix of hop flavours, balanced out with a sweet maltiness. Very good!

UNITY! The aroma is the most strinking part of this one. Toasted malts and toffee, coffee and roasted hazelnuts, this is very nice, it smells like desert in a glass. There is a moderate amount of head but not much lacing, it’s a warm reddish brown, mostly on the brown side. It seems a bit dull at first, it warms up with sweet malts as in the aroma but they never flly develop the complex taste your nose tells you are there. A fairly good hop bitterness, rather higher than the nose would have suggested, finishes off the palate. Its sort of a bit of a few things, much like all homebrew recipies you’ve tried but had to modify this and that... and then your basically making frankinstein brew, it looks like this but tastes like that, but in the end it’s still a better beer then most of what’s out there.