Goose Island Matilda

Brewed by Goose Island Beer Company
Style: Belgian Ale
Chicago, Illinois USA

2008 bottle, shared @ Smithfield Hotel Manchester. Very fruity aroma. Mango and grapes. Alcoholic flavor with grapes. Malty sweet. Notes of orange and mango and citrus.

A Mes rate: bottle at Twickenham beer festival.
Orangey copper coloured with no head. Nice enough colour though. Huge sweet yeasty aroma with a ton of bread and some slight hoppage on top. Similar flavour. Like a solid US beer (I wrote bear in my notes...) with a shit load of Belgian yeast. Big sweet orangey notes with plenty of bread holding it up. Has a kind of marmalade on toast character. Not particularly complex but very tasty and enjoyable. Thanks to Westy Shane McBogan floppy hat with corks wearing ride a bike for 6 miles to say hi to his neighbour Knifey McSpoony Duff. Bit of a Goose?

Bottle from LIVA, Kolding. [thank you, Feldthaus]
Pours hazy golden with a small, creamy, off-white head. Aroma has oranges, bready malts, some biscuit, green apples. Medium carbonation, fine mouthfeel. Flavour is lightly orangey tart, lots of biscuit malts, some hoppy, fruity dryness. Long, lingering, slightly hoppy aftertaste. Fine.

(Bottle) Pours a lightly cloudy bronze body with a small off-white head. Aroma of cherry, earthiness (almost flemish sour), and spices. Flavor of cinnamon, corrainder, unique yeast qualitities, some fruit, mild hops; tastes a bit like it was aged in oak casks.

12oz bottle. Bottled on 072705. Poured a medium and cloudy amber color with a larged sized off white head. The first thing that came to my mind when I smelled it was apple pie. Along with those aromas came light spices, lemons and light yeast. I was into the apple pie aroma. Tastes of all around fruitiness, trace of spices and yeast. Body was fizzy and too carbonated for my tastes.

Draft at Barcade. Jaw-dropping aroma, orval inspired brett character, extremely phenolic, musty, peppery with funky cobwebs, old books and leather notes. The aroma alone would be quite the stunning achievement for any American brewer. Upon pouring, it comes out clearish dark gold to orange, the white head being definitely lasting if not as muscular as it could be. Vast fruit esters development as it warms up, apple, kiwi, litchi and pineapple little complexities. Lilac reminiscent styrians don’t bring out the full power of their aromatics in mouth, but the bitterness is there, just not as dry as I’d wish it to be. Soft doughy touch is charming all the way through, but might be the only consistency from the beginning to the end, take that as an advantage if you will, but I’d have personally preferred a more pungent, less fading out range of flavours. Creamy medium body, airy, foamy big-bubbled texture, excellent mouthfeel. Certainly most interesting and fun beer, hoppy and orvalish if not as complex or dry. Great job!

Bottle from utobeer, having it right now. Alround rating: Peachy, piney, baalnced pale malts, defo belgian character, all well carbonated and very drinkable. Good stuff!

Bottle... Clear, golden ale with a mid-sized, frothy, white head. Good retention. Yeasty, spicy aroma with notes of bread dough, orange peel and fuzzy fruit. The flavor is sweet, malty and lightly fruity. Medium-bodied with an astringent mouthfeel and lively carbonation. Finishes wheaty and dry. A bit Orvalesque, but pulls up way short of that lofty status. Not my thing, but a quality beer nonetheless.