Eel River Triple Exultation

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

This one starts out good enough. Pours thick as the liquid almost has legs as it slides down the glass. Dark brown with red highlights around the edges of the glass. Thick tan head. Looks good. Aroma hints at figs and caramel but it takes a lot of sniffing to figure that out. A slight hop bitterness rides on top of an extremely thin ale that really lacks in flavor. Slightly sweet with an unpleasant alcohol burn at the finish. About as flavorless as a beer this strong can get. I can only assume that the bottle I got was not up to par with others but at this pricepoint and low availability I might not get to try it again. What a dissapointment.

Pours a dark reddish brown with creamy tan head. Aroma of hops, sweet malt, chocolate, dark fruit, molasses, and citrus. Very well balanced flavor of hops and malt. Fruit and chocolate notes. Nice medium to thick, silky mouthfeel. Good beer!

Reddish amber, small head, but fell to a nice concentrated quarter inch. Hot with alcohol, orange liqueur and perfume. Very boozy, some dry cereal and meh. I can’t see past the somewhat gummy heat.

Hazy dull red with a creamy head. Toffee and hop aroma with some milk and nutmeg. Fruitcake flavor, caramel and nuts, with strong alcohol. Silky palate. This is one of those beers that I think would benefit by reducing the alcohol significantly. If it was 6.7%, but with the same grain and hop ratios, it would be a nicer ale. Maybe a few cellar years would help out. Still a good beer though.

Very interesting. Big maltiness is the name of this drink. Slightly hoppy aroma. Big brown head gives this one some creaminess. The key though is the taste and the big malt character this baby has. Some purple fruit and licorice in there as well. Surprisingly good drink.

Overripe dark fruit with an almost moldy character and a bit of Diacetyl, caramel and toffee. Biscuity and caramelized on the palate with some nuts, plums and raisins. Trainwreck of a finish.

22oz - Aroma is loaded with caramel and chocolate followed by black licorice, tobacco and alcohol. Pours dark brown with a small head and good lacing. Flavor matches aroma. Palate is sticky, syrupy and sweet. A very tasty brew.

500ml bomber. Opaque dark toffee brown with a thin off-white head. Quite a rugged, though true to style, aroma of deep alcohol laced caramel. The mouthfeel is surprisingly light and smooth compared to the aroma, almost medium bodied in some ways. The warm brown sugar finish reinforces the fact that this beer is no joke though. Figgy, with some dark fruit pungency. Some bitterness from the hops helps to balance it all out, but they are still trumped out by the thick malt bill. An excellent example of a quirky style.