O’Malley’s Festival Ale

Brewed by Weston Brewing Company
Style: Brown Ale
Weston, Missouri USA

Serve in Dimpled mug

Bottle. Pours a decent tea brown with a nose of roasted nuts and funky cheese. Flavor is a mixture of chocoate, old tobacco, and caramel swirled nuts. Thick mouthfeel. Not bad; just tastes ’old’ and incomplete.

Appearance: clear, deep, and ruddy with mahogany and plum. Tan head with a solid collar which fades soft with a few scattered bubbles. Swirls thick and rich.
Nose: chocolate covered raisins and prunes. Chocolate truffle powder and brownie mix. Toasted walnuts and chestnuts. Surprisingly more dense than dry. Crackling rustic logs in a fireplace. Dry cacao nibs.
Palate: rich and cake mouthfeel – like biting into a moist chocolate cake. Dry finish of espresso beans and cacao nibs. Chocolate covered espresso beans in the breath – more milk chocolate than dark chocolate. Burnt nuts. Starts to grow a touch ashy. Sweetness along sides than tart plum skins. Crackling firewood.
Final Thoughts: a solid fall/winter quaffer. The Festive Ale was different and not what I was expecting.

Sampler at the pub. It poured a dark yellow color. The aroma had a hint of grapefruit. Not a bad brew, just not one of my favorites.

From a 12 oz bottle courtesy of a trade. I am afraid this one may have suffered from poor bottling. It poured a muddy brown with any head at all. Nose is of nuts and caramel malts. Medium mouthfeel bud dead flat with no carbonation of any kind. The flavor is decent but the lack of carbonation made this nearly impossible to drink. I had a sense when fresh this might have been a decent beer, but I just have to assume the cap failed to produce a tight seal and the beer went off the rails. Happens sometimes/

Draught with lunch for the Christmas Tree lighting. Decent so maybe this beer or their brewing has improved based on historical ratings. Color was kinda bronze with a thin, tan head and no real lacing. Flavor was roasted malt and some hoppy bitterness in the finish. Not bad but not sure what makes it a festival ale?

Dark brown with a tan head. The aroma is malty with nuts. Flavor is nicely hopped, Cascade perhaps? They offer some grapefruit tartness and bitterness. There are also some pleasant malt notes that are, again, nutty. This is a pretty average brown.

(bottle) deep brown with small tan head. Nutty malt aroma. Flavor is slightly toasty malt. Flavor is caramel and roasted malts.

Pour is a dark brown with a small tan head. Aroma is roasted malt and not much else. Flavor is again roasted malt with a lasting chocolate on the tounge as this goes down. Nothing really great but from this brewer there is no where to go but up.