King Two Fisted Old Ale

12oz bottle. Poured with a huge off white head which settled down to a medium mahogany color. Aromas of dark fruits, caramel, light chocolate and lightly nutty. Tastes of chocolate, caramel, roast, and nuts. Fizzy body and over carbonated as the pour would suggest.

(12oz bottle) 20-minute pour to let all the head eventually diminish enough to fit everything into my pint glass. Rocky beige head atop hazy mahogany body. Aroma is moderately sweet, raisin/prune, caramel, some smoke. Taste is medium sweet, smoke, brown sugar. Fills out with some caramel and raisin as it approaches room temperature. Overly effervescent medium-full body.

Pours a deep ruby almost woody brown with a fizzy cola-like large head, but surprisingly it lasts a while. Aroma is initially a bit plascity and phenolic, light nuts, some chocolate, and solvent-like. More harsh solvent flavors, toasted malts, nuts, oxidized dark fruits, chocolate, some roast, and ashy with a spritzy mouthfeel.

Brown body with a tiny off white head. The aroma is brown sugar, figs and raisins. The flavor is toffee, plums, raisins and herbal. Medium/fullbody is soft with moderate carbonation.

The beer pours to a really dark mahogany body with a thin off-white head. The aroma is pretty decent. Winey and grainy mixed with tobacco and barley. The flavor is roasted coffee and barley with some sweet chocolate. The hops finish well. The palate is medium bodied with a nice smooth texture. I’m beginning to think this beer is either good or really bad. Perhaps some problems with quality control (see Joel’s rating).

Deep translucent and scarlet copper in color with a fuzzy tan head receding to creamy tan crème on top. Aroma gives strange vibes. Cardboard soaked with aged almond casings and a touch of rotting bark. Rutabaga and broiled prunes create a somewhat rancid dark fruit disconnect. Black scented markers with cocoa fat encapsulating the tip. Abnormally high carbonation and a thin flavor stream leaves little room for the rancid stream to stride in. Black licorice and cackled peppercorn butt heads with anise and jagermeister. Licorice root with rotting roofing shingles. Burnt bran scribbled on with sharpies. Harshly over carbonated with chalky toffee protruding after the intrusive tingling gets pushed aside. Black pepper and licorice port sauce droll with cardboard and spoiled English toffee-like nougats in the end. Quite a catastrophe.

This old ale is very drinkable, perhaps too much so for this style. It is very roasty, and tastes much like the better porters I’ve had. It is OK, but worth getting too excited about it. Pours a clear red-brown with virtually no head. Aroma is somewhere between coffee and a malt ball. Flavor is very roasted, much like a porter. Mouthfeel is thin, particularly for the old ale style. However, this is a very light old ale, and is highly drinkable...not sure if that’s a good thing or not.

Bottle from Belo Vino, Ann Arbor, MI. Pours clear dark brown with a moderate frothy light brown head that diminished slowly with fair lacing. Medium roasted tart fruity malty aroma. Medium body. Medium roasted bitter flavor with a medium bittersweet finish of moderate duration. My expectations where met.