Fish Tale Old Woody English Old Ale

Brewed by Fish Brewing Company/Leavenworth Beers
Style: Old Ale
Olympia, Washington USA

This is a robust, malt packed beer. It pours a slightly hazy chestnut body with a solid beige head. It’s got an aroma of toffee, dark red wine, molasses, and wet pine. Rich and thick in the mouth, it tastes of caramel, burnt wood, molasses, alcohol, and dark juicy fruits that are balanced by a sturdy pine and grapefruit hop bitterness. It leaves a refreshing aftertaste of bitter pine and cooling alcohol. Very nice.

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Bommer of an undated vintage, but likely the "current" batch. Very murky brownish-red color with a tiny head that quickly vanishes. Very weak aroma, but a bit of honey sweetness and port eek out. The taste is mostly like a thick tawny port with sweet malt added. Possibly some molasses. Sticky sweet. Lots of promise, but it seems to just fall short of something really good.

Pours clear and very deep mahogany in color. A sweet, oaky port aroma leaps first from the glass. Honey, fig, and crunchy toffee notes, with a bristling edge of resinous and citrus hops. The alcohol is not shy here. Jameson whiskey in its thin and somewhat sour glory hides plums, caramel and spiced rum. Finishes with an earthy touch of lasting sprucy hops. The trend here is the heat, which strips the palate of its nuances and sterilizes the mouth. Harsh at times, softer at others. Close.

Aroma of resin, caramel and nuts. Color is a deep brown and cloudy amber. Head is frothy and abundant. Big heavy sweetness and very bitter. Full bodied, creamy texture and a lively, warm, long finish.

Bottle courtesy of CBA: Poured a cloudy dark brown color ale with a big thick foamy head with some good retention. Aroma of toffee and dry fruits as well as some NW hops. Taste of toffee malt and subtle dry fruits is well balance by some medium NW hops with s a subtle piney finish. Full body with some adequate carbonation and no alcohol was noticeable. Not totally true to the style because of a higher level of hops then expected but that doesn’t really matters since this is a great beer.

The key word in this beer is wood and this certainly have the wood flavor. the malts and robust and sweet, the hops though secondary give this character. The wood taste wraps everything around giving something truly special.

The aroma is sweet with caramel, toasted malt, alcohol, and wood. The appearance is dark amber with an average head. The flavor is like the aroma with more hop bitterness than expected. This is a well made beer that fails to impress me by itself but is much improved with food parings.

Light chestnut red clear body, oof white head; Sharp alcoholic, very malty sweet good but a bit 1-dimensional nose, a bit to "not what I hoped for but what I expected"; Soft texture in very sweet slightly bitter body; Very long alcohol warm finish, lots of aroma simple sweet malty. Pleasant beer just a little to much "NO surprises" and VERY far from my kind of English-English old ales.