Blue Mountain Lights Out Holiday Ale

Brewed by Blue Mountain Brewery
Style: Old Ale
Afton, Virginia USA

Serve in English pint, Snifter

send corrections   |   shelftag   |   edit barcodes   |   add pic

12oz bottle poured into glass. Thanks to Jason B for sharing this. Dark brown color with a thin beige head. Slight hop presence but the malts dominate here. Good bit of dried fruits and brown sugar happening here.

Draft. Pours amber with an off white head. Sweeter malty aroma with caramel and lightly toasted malts. The flavor has sweet toffee malts, toast, and earthy hops. Pretty good.

Bottle/12oz - Pours a very dark reddish brown in color with nice ruby highlights. Small light tan head that settled to a thin covering over the beer. Aroma is malty with caramel and with faint dark fruit. Flavor is slightly sweet with caramel/toffee and sort of nutty with some dark fruits. Finish is dry and slightly bitter. OK...

Pours a moderately dark brown with a hint of red. Aroma is faint and lacking. Flavor is metallic.

Pours a rich mahogany, topped of with a slightly off white head. The aroma is earthy and spicy, with some caramel notes thrown in for good measure. Sweet caramel malts come to the fore in the taste department, a little cocoa and a mellow hop bitterness that balances the beer beautifully. Another lovely beer from Blue Mountain.

On tap at Columbia Firehouse in Alexandria, VA. Pours a dark brown color with a half-finger tan head that sticks around for a bit before falling down to just a few bubbles. The nose is decent enough with some notes of dark and sweet fruits along with caramel and a bit of raisins. The flavor is really quite bland. The sweetness kind of takes over and all of the better fruit characteristics from the nose are essentially lost, giving way to a bit of a brown-sugar edge. There is a touch of alcohol, but not overpowering at all. The feel is quite a bit too light for the style and for the flavors in general. This went down fairly easily, but the one-dimensional flavor and light mouthfeel are not what I’d like out of this style, or many beers for that matter. Serving type: on-tap Reviewed on: 12-09-2010

Nice brown coloured body with a thin deep tan coloured head and almost no movement at all. Aroma of malt, caramel, nuts, light spices and even some fresh hops tucked in the mix. Medium-bodied; Good pungent caramel and toffee sweetness up front with a subtle spice kick and some good pungent malt in the backend. Aftertaste is nice with some light coffee and bitterness, a little alcohol warmth, but the real showpoint here is the malt and light hop balance - its done almost perfectly. Overall, a nice beer - I wouldn’t really say this is an Old Ale, but i’m not sure what else I’d classify it as - its too strong and complex for an Amber and not nutty/malty enough for a Brown. It’s still a good beer, not amazing, but well worth sampling if you can find it. I sampled this twelve ounce bottle purchased from Opera House Gourmet in Manassas, Virginia on 12-March-2011 sampled at home in Washington on 07-April-2011.

Bottle: Pours a clear deep copper amber mahogany with a spotty-lacing ring of off-white head. Has a lightly sweet toasted nutty dark caramel malty nose with some English hoppiness. Starts with pretty good fullness and sweet toasted caramel maltiness with a touch of dark fruits before a drier bittersweet finish. Well-balanced and quite drinkable.

12oz bottle. Clear dark brown body topped by small beige head. Aroma is moderately sweet, caramel, raisin, some orange, light earthy, prune. Taste is moderately sweet, prune/raisin, caramel, some molasses, orange/earthy. Medium body, some stickiness, low carbonation.

Draft: Weak malt aroma. Clear brown, thin head. Very nutty, slightly piney bitter bite in the end. Rustic and earthy. A "getting back to nature beer". alcohol not noticeable. A very nice brown ale but I don’t sense the character of an old ale as much.