Odell Mountain Standard Reserve 2009

Formerly brewed at Odell Brewing Company
Style: American Strong Ale
Fort Collins, Colorado USA

Serve in Snifter, Trappist glass

Expensive ($17) caged and corked 750mL bottle pours mahogany with tan head. The modest aroma offers up some dark roasted maltiness, a bit spicy anise and then faint sweet molasses notes around the edges. The taste is on the spicy side as well with anise and sort of black licorice mixing with dark roasted malts creating a possibly spicy cedar or oak like sensation. Amid the roasted malts and the spiciness are softer notes of sweet malts and molasses. This is good stuff with out a hint of an issue with its advanced age.

bottle... dark brown with a nice tan head... smells nice, a hoppy barley wine with a bit of malt, tastes basically the same, an easy to drink hoppy barley wine

Bottle thanks to aaron, pours opaque reddish brown with eggshell head, aroma has notes of some aged pine, grass, some roast, caramel, touch of earth and spice. Taste is past its prime for sure, has muted notes of grass and roast, some slight toast, biscuit, with a fairly bitter finish.

Bottle @ home. Slightly hazy, brown appearance with a bubbly, tan head. Piney, mild dark fruity, earthy, caramel malty nose. Earthy, piney, fairly strong, a little boozy, dull hoppy flavor. The hops are pretty gone and past its prime.

Bottle shared by Dallas, thanks
Appearance: Clear dark amber with a medium off-white head and good lacing
Aroma: Toasted malts and caramel
Taste: Sweet caramel, light bitterness
Nice

750 ml bottle thanks to Dallas. Pours a cloudy red color with a large white head. A sweet caramel and PNW hops in the nose. A dry almost tart flavor with oxidized notes, some dusty caramel and some sweet maltiness. Decent.

In short: Uber-rich malted body and citrusy/resinous/peppery hopping. An decadent American Strong Ale just like I love them
How: Bottle 750ml, corked & caged. Consumed a little over one year after the beer release
The look: Cloudy copper body topped by a medium beige head with good retention
In long: Nose has a ton of resinous hops over rich toffee as well as ground black pepper notes. Taste starts with a corpulent malted body with rich toffee, earth, decadent caramel, tree bark and roots. Then the truckload of hops that are refreshingly citrusy but also very resinous and very peppery. Body is very full and carbonation is very lively, maybe little bit too much so. This sure didn’t taste like a beer that is over one year of age, it was bright and full of life. This is my type of big American Strong ale, decadent, uber-hoppy, easy to drink. Dangerously easy to drink, I downed my 750ml like it was a session beer. Some say I’m drinking myself to death but it’s really not as dramatic as it sounds. Technically I’m also breathing myself to death and even blinking myself to death.

2009 version from Pringle’s Fine Wine & Spirits in Fort Collins, CO that I brought back to CA with me. Pours a crystal clear medium dark brown with a ruby tinge and a very enthusiastic, foamy off-white head. Earthy, woody aromas rise off the pour with a slight funkiness. Taste is very malt forward at first with notes of milk and bittersweet chocolate and a dry huskiness. This is followed by an unusual light sourness that I think is due to the high hop levels, but I would have guessed (without reading the description) that this was from either wood aging or the addition of wild yeast/bacteria. It doesn’t overpower the flavor but adds a nice counter to the malt. An earthy bitterness finally comes through and sticks to the tongue while warming alcohol and chocolate flavors linger. I’m wondering now if some of the flavors I’m getting are due to this being a 2009 vintage being drunk in 2011. In any case, this is a very unique ale and I’m looking forward to trying more from Odell when I’m in CO next time.