3.4 AROMA 7/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 14/20
UPDATED: OCT 17, 2007 Bottle. pale amber beer with a slight cloudiness. Aroma is very fruity with lots of apple, pear and berry fruitiness. The smell is very reminiscent of Cooper’s sparkling, which I gather is the point. A bit of apricot. Light pale malt, soft minerally bitterness. Very fruity and lightly herbal.
Vermont Brewers Fest ’07. Pale golden beer, thin head. Very faint fruity aroma up front with a cherry/berry yeastiness. Lean pale malts. Low hop aroma and flavour. A bit straight-forward and really unlike anything I had in Australia. No Pride of Ringwood (which I’m definitely not complaining about).
5 3 6 2 11
2.5 AROMA 5/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 5/10 PALATE 2/5 OVERALL 10/20
Bottle from Capone’s. I always get my hopes up for these, but I usually seem to get let down. This one pours orangy coppery with 1-finger off-white head. Aroma is pale malt, overripe apricot, slight funk, earthy, and orangey notes. The taste is pale malt, slight tart pear/apricot, hopcitrus, earthy Ringwood hops, and yeast. Rather light palate, and lacking complexity. Not a great style here.
2.3 AROMA 4/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 5/10 PALATE 2/5 OVERALL 9/20
22 ounce bottle from City Market in Burlington, VT (July 2007) consumed a bit below cellar temperature from a Hair of the Dog glass. Super-clear light yellow-gold body is topped by a thick, creamy envelope of head which slowly decays leaving chunky lacing….nose is faintly grassy, light pale malts, umm, nothing much more; honestly I tried to work with it, but it’s just so terribly underpowered/underdeveloped..….body is thick, honey-sweet and syrupy, with light grassy/earthy hops contributing a reasonable finishing bitterness; there is a also a light, pungent farmy/yeasty character that is more noticeable as a faint spike in the mouthfeel than real flavor; some mineralic qualities at the back end add interest though not joy in my book….carbonation is, unfortunately, rather low, belying the claims on the bottle, and this contributes to a cloying, flat and dull palate. Another disappointment in this series; let’s hope the next one (foreign stout) gets it back on track. NOTE: what the heck is an "Australian Sparkling Ale"? I entered this as golden/blonde as that seems the closest....c’mon Otter Creek, there are plenty of real styles to hit yet without resorting to this silliness.
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