Eel River Triple Exultation

Brewed by Eel River Brewing Company
Style: Old Ale
Fortuna, California USA

Bottle. Body-dark tawny brown with a thin film of bubbles and a thin ring of bubbles. Taste-tannic, bark, light molasses, pecan shells, medium acrid bitterness, slightly cloying, roasty. Very good and drinkable.

Picked this up thinking nothing. What a great blind pick. A bang for your buck at $5-6. Dark Red, lots of carbonation. Fruity, roasted, and maybe oatmeal? The texture on this beer is amazing, a stew/flour feel.

22oz bottle. Poured a deep and muddy reddish brown color with a larger sized off white head. Aromas of dark fruits, brown sugar, caramel, chocolate, and earthy. Tastes of caramel, dark fruits, earthy, and lightly roasty. Light to medium alcohol in the finish.

Aroma of candied fruity sugar, appearance maroon and opaque with lingering foam (and bigger head on the 2nd half-bottle pour). Bitter-sugar combo on the palate, just what one seeks in beer. Yum!

22oz bottle, courtesy of a trade from a while ago, and I’m getting very bad at remembering these things. Thanks, you! Pours a medium, brownish-amber color; light tan head with good retention and lacing. A bit standoffish in the aroma, surprisingly: pine, dried dark fruits, and a decent show of alcohol. Full, chewy mouthfeel: relaxed carbonation, with a very dense nougat and caramel presence; holds back from any measure of syrupiness, just dense caramel and dried dark fruits (dates, lots of dates, and raisins); very drinkable, warming old ale. Lengthy, dry caramel and nougat finish.

Bottle. Lovely malt-hop balance in the aroma - sweetish caramel with faint toffee and plum, molasses with a touch of pine resin. Mild, round fruit and delicious barleywine overtones. Pretty near-opaque, near-pitch red pour with an even prettier head (lacing and rocky, smooth and fluffy), tanned with a bit of yellow lurking behind. Bittersweet taste, huge pile of hops (of the caramel-resin variety). More molasses and toffee with a very dry sort of tobacco flavor (from the earthy hops?) - not quite chocolate. Vanilla with a powdered cocoa chalk. Thick, full body, smooth feel, and more than a touch of alcohol to go with (not particularly harsh, but still unnecessary). Sultry and dark, a great sipper diminished by the over-the-top abuse of alcohol. [For taste, this probably runs about a 3.7 on my scale, aber Punkte müssen abgezogen werden! ]

Appearance: Pours a hazy brown body with a wispy, cream-colored head. Smell: Sweetish aroma of caramel malt with a touch of cocoa and strong notes of dark fruit. Hint of spice. Taste: Mild caramel malt presence with a reserved sweetness. Juicy date fruitiness and more of that light chocolate quality from the aroma. A citric hoppy flavor grows throughout and leads to a profoundly bitter finish. Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied. Moderate carbonation. Warming and has a slight stickiness to it. Drinkability: With it’s sharp, punchy bitterness, this one’s definitely an Americanized old ale.

This old ale pours a deep brown color from a 22 oz bottle. Small to medium sized white foamy head. Aroma is caramel, earthy and chocolate. Medium bodied old ale. The malts are earthy, caramel and sweet. Hints of chocolate. There are some nice fruit undertones here as well. The hops are earthy and a touch floral. Nicely balance beer. It is a very pleasant sipping beer, and if it wasn’t nearly 10% alcohol it would be a nice session ale. It has that pleasant taste that you could drink all night, but the alcohol would make you fall face first to the floor with much smashing of glasses and broken furniture. Nice balance. Good carbonation. The chocolate flavors intensify as the beer warms. Nice beer. Nice beer to sip in front of the fire on a cool evening. Mouthfeel is full. Finish is clean, crisp and a touch dry. Aftertaste is slightly earthy and bitter.