Ithaca Ten

A robust autumn red pour and a sumptuously milky beige head. Soft, sweet pine and tropical fruit aroma all sitting in caramel; mango, kiwi, and blood orange; generally quite green, and quite sweet, though only in the shades of the hops; there’s very little stickiness and no fatness in the malts, but only a clean pale profile; honey, dry wood, and white bread crusts.

Flavor is similarly clean and sweet, again in the nuances of its massive bitterness rather than in residual malt and alcohol sugar. Tropical fruits are huge, floral sweetness is huge, aerosol alcohol is huge. The calmest of cracker-like malt offers only the slimmest base bread of sweetness underneath to keep the beer balanced; rather than force a barrage of flavors from both overdone malt and hops into a doomed struggle of excesses, the flavor ends up being something close to delicate in hoppiness; astringency in both kinds seems to linger quite readily. It tends toward a slick crystal flavor and a weakened blood orange-like sweet acidity, and this is a little uncomfortable.

Syrupy and full palate, medium carbonation, and a medium-length bitter finish; showing distant chocolate, white fruits, and floral bitterness. Warm. A remarkably well-made while still typically bland strong ale. Thanks Adam!

Bottle. Aroma nutty with rich dark malts, slight sweet alcohol, tropical fruits which grow. Flavor very nutty, nougaty, toffee-y with sweet fruits and big sweet malt, but never unbalanced big sweet malt with all those earthier flavors and the tropical hop presence. Not very complex, but just a damn good beer. Very tasty.

Bottle, batch E!009. Pours a dark brown/amber with a huge head! The head is light brown, thick and foamy and really expands once you pour it. Aroma is lots of caramel malt with some citrusy/lemony hops. Flavor is EXTREMELY balanced--fresh citrusy, floral hops with a lightly sweet, crackery malt. Slight fruitiness. This is one of the smoothest ASAs I’ve ever had. Not too sweet/malty and not too bitter. Some alcohol burn. But this is a superb beer and very easy drinking (you get some booziness in the flavor, but somehow it’s not really a "heavy" beer). Wow, this is a good beer!

Rich amber color with a thin off-white head. Almost rye-tinted aroma, thick malts, moderate earthy hop character. Nice rich malt and hop balance, lingering peppery finish. Can’t necessarily pin it down, but I like it.

I thought Ithaca Beer Company and didn’t expect this level of craftmanship with the initial sticky banana-esque yeasty character along with a heavy malt bomb supplanted with a citrus grapefruity hop explosion. The only thing keeping this from perfect in my taste buds is the lingering caramel malt, murky appearance, and the unhidden alcohol burn which slides in with the malt character. If drinkability was a factor, I’d score a bit lower but who cares, I want the aggressive character!