Maritime Pacific Jolly Roger Christmas Ale

Brewed by Maritime Pacific Brewing Co.
Style: English Strong Ale
Seattle, Washington USA

12oz bottle via trade with indiana_red - thanks ken! - Pours dark copper with a short tan head that leaves some lace. Aromas of fresh caramel malts and some PNW hops. Flavor is caramel, raisin, some good fruity notes, and slight bitterness on the finish. Good medium body with a crisp finish. Alcohol is well hidden.. Not bad..

Sadly, this local (Seattle) beer didn’t finish highly in the Winter beer ratings my friends and I conducted. The metallic finish was the biggest problem. It starts off promisingly with a slightly sweet maltiness which gives way to a bit of hop bitterness. The aftertaste was a real turnoff though.

Not much aroma, but what is there is nice. Nice ruby tinted brown color with smallish pale tan head disipating to very thin hints quickly. Not overly sweet for the style and has a decent bitter middle that almost tastes burned. Nothing special in the aftertaste. Overall, nothing particularly bad about this beer and it does seem to hide the 9% pretty well. Definitely a decent seasonal.

Bottle. Pours a reddish amber color with a off-white head on top. Aroma is malty with fruit, caramel, and spices. Flavor is caramel, fruit, malts, spice, with a touch of hops. Definitely a sipping beer, a bit heavy and syrupy. A decent seasonal ale.

On tap at the brewery. Had this one last and after a sub-par rest of the gauntlet at MP was pleasantly surprised. Whiskey coloured. Sweet, roasted malts and ’holiday-like’ spices. Lasting, sweet, smoked finish. Alcohol extremely noticeable on finish. Highly recommended and will get more next time I’m out.

(12 oz bottle: Obtained 30-Nov-05 in trade with Larry Pitonka, thanks André!) Yo-Ho-Ho-ly Cow, this beer is terrific! Right off the bat, the fruity, malty, sweet, caramel candy nose is amazing. The candy-like, caramely maltiness carries through even more in the flavor. Sugary and sweet (but in a quality way), a hint of butter, but balanced by a fair amount of bitter hops. I’m thinking this has a flavor profile similar to a British-style American barleywine without quite the same heaviness. Definitely a full-bodied beer, even pushing close to the realm of syrupy. I suppose this would seem cloying to many people, but I like dessert-like beers and wines, so I’m fine with this. Carbonation is mild. The amber body seems hazy, but upon closer inspection, it’s haziness is from the small particles suspended in the beer. Otherwise, the beer seems quite clear actually. The small, off-white head settles to a thin ring, but not before depositing some patchy lacing near the the top of the glass. A very solid offering that I wasn’t expecting to like this much. Will definitely have to seek out this brewery the next time I’m in Seattle.

Cask version, marks as above Mahogany-chestnut, clear; rather good head. Slightly fishy ( adequate, maybe?) & hoppy nose, but no C-hops onslaught. And then there’s both vanilla and diacetyl underneath. Sweet, butterscotch, toffee and a hop onslaught sticking uneasily on it. This is totally unbalanced and actually off-putting. Sticky, not to say cloying and very badly... "casked"??? A very poor show. They seem not to know how to handle this.
Bottled, slightly aged, thanks to DonGS Hazy red-foxy; rosy-amber head, small but dense, leaving some good rings. 4 Some malts in a cookie way; hops abundant all the same, and a pretty vinous character. 7 Definitely some oxydation, licorice, fruity taste - raspberry pour. 6 Despite its ABV, and malt toll, it’s a bit watery - the oxydation? 3 Good, but it suffered from its - relatively short - aging. 14 = 3.4

This is a yummy little rendition of this style. I love it when these are transformed into holiday ales. Big juicy fruit aromas, with a bit of alcohol behind them, with lots of rich carmalized brown sugar. Has a sweet maltiness, but not over the top, richly overbalanced and a little spicy, but a very solid and delicious ale.