Maritime Pacific Jolly Roger Christmas Ale

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

Deep garnet color; thin but lively head; candy sugar and cinnamon in the nose. Heavy whiskey flavors upfront to start the pint. Very warming. Warms to a ton of sweetness. No subtlety here.

Deep red body, thin light cream head. Big toffee aroma with raisins, caramel, and a touch of prune. Yeah, it’s like a holiday dessert. The flavor isn’t as interesting, but it’s still pretty nice with toast and a touch of toffee and dark fruits, notes of caramel, and hints of red grapes in the finish as well as bread. Nice balance of toasty and sweet flavors. There may be a touch of spicing too (cinnamon?). Thanks Dan (jah noth) for the bottle!

(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.

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.

Pretty darn good. Solid body, tastes like Christmas. Whatever herbs or spices they added do enhance the hoppiness and it’s all rounded well out by solid malt.

Picked up a 12-oz bottle (2006 Vintage) from Bottleworks, north of downtown Seattle, WA. Pours a semi-cloudy (with particles)orange amber brew with a thin beige head that quickly dissipates to a fine film and no ring. Aroma of sweet caramel malt, a touch of Granny Smith apples, dark pitted fruits, and brown sugar. Taste is full bodied, very light carbonation with flavors of grandma’s mild fruit cake, dark pitted fruits, caramel malt, a touch of yeast and some brown sugar. Finish is quite sweet with a slowly disappearing dark fruit and bread aftertaste. No bitterness in this sweet winter beer.

bottle courtesy of riversideAK.

slightly hazed pale ruby brown with a creamy toasted almond colored head. some drippy lacing is present. lots of caramel on the nose mixed with earthy warm spices, toffee, grass, red apples and faint piny leafy hops. sugar is a non issue thanks to the ample hop content... flavors of caramel/toffee/butterscotch, toasted nuts, earthy spice/cinnamon, pine, mild bitterness and lots of dry leafy hoppiness on the finish. the hops carry through into the aftertaste where they keep parching my mouth. medium body. bitterness and hops keep it really enjoyable. 7/3.5/7.5/3/15/3.7

Brilliant red-amber body with a crisp head that fades. Cotton candy aroma with an intense bubble gum quality and gorgeous malt touch--one of the vey best english strong ale bouquets. The flavor is of refined candy malt and alcohol--transfixed so it does not waver--extremely consistent throughout and well balanced with hop tone. A great english strong ale.