Ithaca Excelsior! Ten

Brewed by Ithaca Beer Company
Style: American Strong Ale
Ithaca, New York USA

draft. I was curious to try this with it’s high ratings. Very bourbon aroma. Some throat burn. Amber yellow color. Very strong. Small bubble head.

Courtesy GodOfThunder. Pours a cloudy, dark, reddish-brown color with a foamy, well retained, cream colored head. Spotty lacing marks the glass. The aroma is malt forward, showing caramel, toffee, and brown sugar along with orange hops and floral citrus blossoms. Flavors show more sweet and savory toffee and caramel, followed by notes of citrus, pine, and floral hops. Well balanced. Smooth carbonation lends the medium-full body an almost creamy texture. Solid brew. Reminds me of a poor man’s Alesmith Decadence 2006.

Sampled @ Backus’s Backdoor Bash.The nose on this is hop city!Lots of piney hop aroma here.The flavor was hoppy and bitter but well balanced.The hoppiness didn’t kill it.The alcohol was hidden well.Finished off with a hoppy bitterness.

Aged several months in my cellar, it was an aggressive hoppy taste with a redish colour. The rye lends a sweet and spicy taste that made it dangerously drinkable.

Tasting at mcbackus 10/19. Ruddy reddish brown. Smells of hops, cider, and malts. Great body on the beer and flavor is damn nice. Sweet, dried fruit, vanilla with a good hop finish. Well crafted beer.

Olive bottle, 750 ml, batch E! 006, purchased at Beers of the world (Rochester) via Karl Probst on August 16 2008, savoured on October 4 2008; eye: reddish brown, hazy, no effervescence, beige head made up of rather large bubbles and that turns into a tiny ring, good lacing; nose: quite hoppy, pine, grapefruit, orange, caramelized malt, slight ash, slight spices; mouth: hops is quite present but balanced by the caramelized malt, pine, pepper, lots of orange, paprika, finale in caramelized malt with a good presence of pine and orange but also of alcohol, creamy, nice balance, rather sweet, mildly bitter, light astringency, full body, rather carbonated; overall: quite likable FRANÇAIS Bouteille olive, 750 ml, batch E! 006, achetée chez Beers of the world (Rochester) via Karl Probst le 16 août 2008, savourée le 4 octobre 2008; œil : brun-rouge, voilée, pas d’effervescence, mousse beige formée de bulles plutôt grosses et qui se transforme en un petit anneau, bonne dentelle; nez : très houblonnée, pin, pamplemousse, orange, malt caramélisé, très léger cendré, très léger épices; bouche : houblon très présent presque aussitôt équilibrée par son malt caramel, pin, poivre, beaucoup d’orange, paprika, finale en malt caramel avec une bonne présence de pin et d’orange et aussi d’alcool, crémeuse, bel équilibre, plutôt sucrée, moyennement amère, légère astringence, corsée, plutôt carbonatée; en résumé : bien aimé

thanks nhorweeen (never rated this the first time). says 9.9% on the bottle, batch E!009. wow, i haven’t had a beer like this in a long time. pours a thick murky cherry wood brown with a quarter inch of dirty mustard brown foam. can smell the soapy hops from a mile away. super soapy, but a decent bit of malts, making it a bit like bigfoot. the slightly flat mouthfeel is perfect for this beer, as is the fridge temperature. very very sweet, raisins, vanilla, lots of underlying fruit. the white sox are so bad, my god.

750ml Batch# E!006 Received this in a recent trade with BeerTruth, thanks Adam! Ithaca presents their Excelsior Series really well. The bottle labels this as a "double red ale". TEN pours a dark red that borders on brown when it’s sitting by itself. When backlit it glows ruby with very few streams of carbonation bubbles creeping to the surface. A healthy two finger + dirty white head formed on the pour and instantly became creamy and meringue like while leaving big chunky lacing as it fell. Leaves behind great lacing. There’s a good deal of hops in TEN. Pine and citric notes greet the nose all at once along with ghost like floral qualities. Orange and sweetened pink grapefruit handle the citric aspect but the pine is the dominant hop aroma. A sweet caramel maltiness plays a big role in here as well. It tries to balance out the hoppiness and, while falling short, gives a valiant effort. A touch of alcohol spiciness wafts up here and there. Flavor is just as the aroma suggested with a caramel malt presence that lays down a solid foundation for the hoppiness. The pine takes a bigger lead on the tongue leaving the citric hoppiness to add complexity. The pine resins leave a growing bitterness and the spicy alcohol adds yet another layer of complexity. This is a very good beer from Ithaca. The bitterness continues to grow but the malts and hops seem fairly balanced. The mouthfeel is on the heavier side of the spectrum but doesn’t sit long on the tongue. The bitterness keeps on growing and eventually becomes a tongue stomper. I like the mouthfeel more and more as I work my way through the bottle. At first this beer seemed a little too thick to be an easy drinker and the alcohol seemed too high. As I type I glance at my glass and it’s about empty. I’m drinking this much faster then I planned and having no problem with it. TEN is another high quality brew from Ithaca. I’m a big fan of hoppy reds and this is a hoppy "double red". I really like what Ithaca is doing with their Excelsior series and hope that they keep up the good work. 6/1/08