Magic Hat Wooly

Brewed by Magic Hat Brewing Company
Style: Traditional Ale
South Burlington, Vermont USA

Serve in Dimpled mug, English pint, Stein, Yard

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Buttery, slightly doggy, light citrus, sweetish aroma. Bad label, standard longneck, almost clear golden ale, thin clingy white head. Very clean drinking. Lightly briny, moderately bitter, pleasantly sweet and honeyish. Silky mouth, quick, nice brisk finish with some oregano.

Appearance: Pours a hazed, copper-amber body with a one-third-inch, white head.

Smell: Under-toasted biscuit tops, a flash of bitterish herbs, and only the faintest blip of spruce on the radar screen. A little dull from an aromatic standpoint.

Taste: Shaky biscuit maltiness, minor toastiness, and very lightly caramelized sugars. Doesn’t quite yield any lemon, any herbiness, and just a should shrug-equivalent of spruce character. Modest bitterness. Dry, seemingly unclean finish. Pretty dull tastewise, too.

Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied. Medium carbonation.

Overall: Without the spruce, standing alone as an ESB, it doesn’t fare too well, really. Add the spruce gimmick, it’s not much better. Lackluster offering.

A simple gold with a frothy white head. If you like ESBs then this is a great standout of the style. THe aroma is fresh and the flavor is well rounded. The finish is clean with that hint of spiced bitterness.

Slightly hoppy with spruce notes for the aroma. Light amber color with a decent head. Hoppy with a fairly smooth piney finish. ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone

UPDATED: FEB 8, 2013 UPDATE - I tried mixing this with SA Boston Lager - not too bad. Still tastes a bit like a beer with a shot of Pine-sol, but it’s at least palatable now. Poured from bottle. Aroma of spruce, malt and leather ( that’s a first). Amber gold with thin head. Big spruce flavor, hard to detect other flavors beyond that. Somewhat metallic and medicine-y. High carbonation. I can’t stand this any more. Drain pour.

Doesn’t smell that great. A bit off. The flavor is just ho-hum. Somewhat English strong but really at most just okay.

Pours hazy amber. Very little head with no retention. Earthy scent. Weak mouthfeel. Musty pine notes disappear into unpleasant bitterness. Knowing this is advertised as an ESB, I am disappointed with the base beer, spruce seems like a gimmick. ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone

Cloudy copper pour. Soft nose. Herbs lemon honey. Pine. Grass. Easy drinking but nothing that will knock you out. Good ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone

Reviewed 12/24/2012. 12 oz bottle poured into a pint glass. A: Pours a cloudy golden copper color. The head is a two finger offwhite color with a rather frothy texture and low retention. On the other hand, it leaves a level of lacing I only see out of IPAs. S: Aromatically, it does come across like a non-hoppy pine aroma. It’s not loaded with spruce, but I do notice it quite well. Other than that, though, it smells like an old IPA with stale hops and generic caramel malts. T: Firstly, the flavor profile comes across like a generic ESB, hitting the basics of the style (bright fruit presence and weirdly tart caramel malts) without doing them brilliantly...then the wave of piny spruce comes (both from hops and added spruce); and honestly it kind of works, especially on the finish. It’s not great, but it’s actually quite okay - more than I was expecting. M: Has a good coarseness to the texture which might be my favorite feature of this brew. The finish and aftertaste are pretty neutral between wet and dry. O: Nothing wrong with this at all. There’s no wow factor or ’zing’, but I can’t find anything bad with this. I wouldn’t purchase this again, but I’d never refuse one.

The aroma of this beer is quite muted, but there are hints of vanilla, roasted malts, and herbal hops, and the color is a cloudy golden yellow with a prominent white head that dissipates quickly. Once sipped, this beer is of a medium bitterness and a light sweetness, but the lively carbonation makes for an earthy tasting beer. The finish is slightly bitter, and the medium body is quite nice.