3 AROMA 5/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 5/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 14/20
UPDATED: DEC 11, 2011 12oz bottle 12/10/11 (Jack’s Mountain Home)-44° in Lager Glass-Pours a slightly hazy orangish amber with a small white head. Aroma of hops, citrus, pine, and malt. Taste of the same with a bit more malt on the back end. This medium bodied brew is not bad. Goes down easy.
4 AROMA 7/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 5/5 OVERALL 17/20
Not quite the big hop aroma you’d expect. This is pretty good; quite dry in the finish. The best finish easily of all the choc beers I’ve had. and maybe the best one too.
2.4 AROMA 4/10 APPEARANCE 2/5 TASTE 5/10 PALATE 2/5 OVERALL 11/20
12oz bottle pours a murky brown/amber with a huge khaki head. Aroma is faint fruits and caramel, hint of roasted malts. Taste has an initial acidic bitterness into some roasted malts and finishing with an astringent bitterness. Blah.
3 AROMA 6/10 APPEARANCE 2/5 TASTE 6/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 13/20
Bottle pours a hazy orange with a thin white head. Scent is hops and bread with a fruit note. Taste is toasted malts and lightly bitter.
3.2 AROMA 6/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 6/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 14/20
Bottle. Pours a clear golden color with a small white head. Has a fruity malty hoppy aroma with hints of citrus. Fruity malty hoppy citrus flavor. Has a fruity malty hoppy finish with hints of caramel in the aftertaste.
3.1 AROMA 6/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 6/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 13/20
bottle-pours lightly hazy orange with a soapy white head. nose of oxidized hops and faint grainy notes. flavors show a decent beer here if it were in better condition. big cascade notes here and finishes pretty dry with some grapefruit notes even though there is oxidization. could be very good if fresh.
3.5 AROMA 6/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 14/20
Location: 12 oz bottle from Colonial Wine and Spirits, 6/8/11, as Choc Basement Batch
Aroma: The nose is fairly slight, some light fruity, pine, and herbal hops and light malty notes
Appearance: It pours a slightly cloudy orange color with a fluffy white head and good lacing
Flavor: The taste has is pine, herbs, and citrus hops, light sweet and medium-heavy bitter
Palate: The body is fairly creamy, smooth on the palate with a later tingle and a rather dry finish to it
Overall Impression:
I was pleasantly surprised by this one. It wasn’t special or anything, but it was better then I was expecting after the Belgian Wheat I had from these guys yesterday was a real disappointment. A solid APA.
3.3 AROMA 5/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 8/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 14/20
12 ounce stubby bottle poured into a juice glass (I’m travelling for work, so beggars can’t be choosers). Color is a dark gold to amber, very similar to an apple juice. That goes for the carbonation as well, as the beer has quite a bit of fizz. The head bursts forward but doesn’t hang around long, as it collapses down to just a skimming over the top. Appearance is somewhat murky, but that’s my fault – a closer inspection of the bottle reveals a pretty hefty sediment of yeast. Aroma is subdued, but again could be on me – whenever I travel my sinuses usually take a beating and this trip has been no exception. Some mild and subdued hop aroma with a little bit of malt. That’s really all I can get out of the nose at this time. Taste is surprisingly hop-centric, with familiar notes of grapefruit bursting through. My first thought is that this is clearly a beer with Cascade hops. Using a magnifying glass to read the marketing speak on the label and would you look at that, Cascade. Oh, and it’s bottle conditioned too. Guess I should have read that at the outset. Malt profile becomes more pronounced as you drink it, and I think that it’s not so much bready, but more nutty – something like almonds come to mind. Mouthfeel is light to medium. The carbonation is a little bit heavy but it helps scrub the residual hop bitterness off your tongue. There’s a little bit of malt sweetness up front with the hops to help balance things out, but it finishes dry. There’s just a hint of the alcohol phenol on the back of the throat when drinking the beer – this is a flavor I’ve found that I’m very susceptible to, so your mileage may vary. The light mouthfeel and dry finish seem to tip me off that this is a beer that’s meant for consumption in mass quantities, which is fine – it goes quite well on a late-spring evening like tonight. Overall I’d prefer the body to have just a little bit more in terms of malt character and I’d like to have the alcohol tones down a little bit (again, probably just my preference). This beer certainly doesn’t break any new grounds in terms of the Pale Ale style, but it doesn’t do much wrong either.
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