Deschutes 19th Anniversary Golden Ale

Bottle. Aroma of citrus, hops and flowers. Colour golden with lasting white head. Much lacing. Flavour of citrus, malt, and hops, with a lingering bitter finish.

Poured into a Duvel tulip. 3 finger off white head above an apple-juice colored body. Tiny yeast particles float around in suspension. Nice Belgian-type lacing. Smells fruity with apple and banana notes, along with a spiciness and a hint of booziness. Taste is sweet and spicy with apple and pear, a hint of banana, lots of yeast, and a hop bitterness in the finish that sets this apart from the traditional Belgian style. Interesting and delicious. Body is pretty thick and rich, almost luxurious. Carbonation is appropriate. The sweetness here makes it pretty easy to drink but it suffers from the booziness. A solid American try at the BSPA style.

On tap at Pizza Port Strong Ale Festival. Shared with too many ratebeerians to list (see event attendies). Nice creamy microfoam head. Dark amber color. Sweet malty caramel flavor. A little bit of oaky melanoidin malt flavor.

Draft at Oregon Brewers Festival, Portland, OR. Small white head that was mostly lasting, virtually no lacing, minimal carbonation observed, transparent, and a golden yellow hue. The aroma was malty, hoppy, semi-sweet, and some orange peel. The flavor was sweet, malty, hoppy, fruity, vinuous but not overly done, and citrus. Smooth mouthfeel and medium body. Obviously, I have gone against the grain on this beer, but that’s the way it is. To each her/his own.

really liked this bond street ale- very malty with lots of hop citrus and a nice pear, apple, bannana, earthy, sweet malt backbone. Pretty astringent although low to moderate ester concentration. I liked this as a NW inspired belgian ale, not being a fan of the traditional euro-style. This had a mix of things great about american pale ales with a nice belgian kick. May be hard to classify it as a belgian strong but it is a very nice drink regardless.