Eel River Triple Exultation

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

Another organic bomb. Pours a murky reddish-brown, with no head. Reminiscent of rusty water. Ethyl alcohol, caramel, and the smell of burnt sugar. Viscous, soilid mouthfeel has me looking up, maybe the taste will redeem this one. Nope. Raisins, prunes, and malt doused in alcohol and molasses. This is like one of those nightmarish Christmas homemade candies plums. Boooo.

Pours a mostly translucent deep copper with a medium creamy/bubbly off white head that laced. Aroma of dark fruits, molasses, caramel, tobacco and brown sugar. Flavor of toasted malt, brown sugar, light citrus notes, moderate hop bitterness, some hop flavor, caramel and dark fruits.

Bomber bottle poured into chilled pint glass. Aroma is sweet and brown sugar. The flavor is similar, figs and molasses. It feels really boozey on the first and second tastes. I wonder if this will get more balanced as it warms up. This reminds me of Lagunitas Brown Sugga.

[Bottle] Pours a clear caramel color with a medium sized beige head. Aroma is citric hops with some caramel. Flavor is quite hoppy, a bit of bitterness, and a bit toasty. I don’t quite understand how this isn’t an amber ale.

Dark brown with a small beige head. Aroma is brown sugar, spices, fig, and raisins. Taste is of figs, dates, brown sugar, and malt with a nice alcohol warmth.

22oz bottle from bevmo mission valley. Pours a clear copper color with a 2 finger off white head. Nice hoppy nose with some candied tree fruits. Flavor was very hoppy and sweet with a good balance of toasted malts.

Sampled on tap at 1702, Tucson AZ
This beer arrives, too cold, but at least in a room temperature tulip glass, with a frothy, finger-and-a-half thick head that comes up to the rim of the glass. The head is a pale tan color and the beer is a dark amber, brown color that shows a fairly opaque, lighter amber color when held up to the light. This smells rich and malty with an almost bourbon like back-note / alcohol spiciness to it. Concentrated, toasted, not quite roasted caramel malts play a big role in the nose. Dark fruit notes of concentrated raisins and a touch of prune couple with a browned toffee and brown sugar like character. This has quite a hoppy edge to it as well that can’t quite hide behind the malt character; aromas of pine, some herbal character and a hint of citrus character are definitely noticeable as well.

The flavor has a rich, toasted malt character to it that is quickly balanced by a fair amount of hop character that provides a pine like bite, some herbal notes and a lingering bitterness. The flavor is more malt focused than hop oriented, but the hops certainly don’t play second fiddle here. While I like that the dominant crystal malt character has a toasted, fairly grain oriented edge to it (along with the caramelized grain notes that are more typical), it still seems a bit too dominant here. The beer is actually pretty sweet as well, this is mostly perceived up front though as the beer finishes with a nice, biting hoppiness that really helps to provide a bit of drying character in the finish. A touch of sweet citrus peel character seems to peek through at times, though the herbal and pine notes from the hops are definitely a bit more prominent. The body is definitely pretty rich; this is most definitely a sipping beer.

As the beer warms up some hemp like aromatic notes start to become noticeable in the nose. The flavor too becomes a bit more balanced between the malt and hop character. In fact the hop notes get quite a bit more aggressive, with quite a sharp, herbal edge to it as the beer warms up. The malt picks up a hint of roasty character as it warms up as well, though this is pretty subtle. This ends up being a nice beer to be drinking in the colder months of the year. The rich malt plays the leading role, but it ends up being nicely balanced out by a biting hop character. Despite this balance, the beer ends up not as well integrated as I would prefer. Not bad, but it could be beer; perhaps a bit of age might help with this.

Pours with a creamy, light brown head over a hazed mahogany hued body. Strong lacing. Aroma of alcohol burn, sweetness, brown sugar and cereal. Taste is brown sugar, but after the mid palate, pretty darn bitter. Some fruit, caramel and crappy whiskey as well. Syrupy mouthfeel, moderate carbonation. Low drinkability because of the high alcohol, and strongly, lingering, bitter aftertaste.