Ottos Five Year Ale

(11/3/07, 12oz handbottle, thanks mj) Crystal clear amber body with virtually no head. Aroma is sweet, boozy, caramel/toffee, light anise. Taste is sweet, caramel, plum/raisin, wood, bread, some alcohol. Sticky full body, minimal carbonation.

Mostly clear medium dark amber colored body with an off-white head. Bright and crisp appearance. Nose of sweet candy sugar, light and clean yeast esters, light candy spice and fruit. Taste is sticky and sweet, not overly cloying, but still too sweet for what I like. It resembles a bigger tripel because of the lack of earthy brown sugar, heavy yeast phenolics. The light candy sugar is probably the most dominant flavor, along with some pear and white grape and light, bready spice, and overall it’s well made and without brewing flaws, but I don’t exactly like the recipe, especially if the goal was a Belgian quad. Otto’s makes some superb beer, but Belgian styles don’t seem to be their biggest talent.

Draft. Brownish pour with minimal head. Complex aroma of candi sugary malt, figgy fruits, hops, some floral spices, and spicy molasses. Tastes dark fruity, with citric hops, some funky notes, and some candi sugary molasses hints. Not bad at all.

Handbottle from mj! Thanks! Nose of molasses, spices, and caramel; Rusty red with not much head; flavor is sweet with toffee, caramel, alcohol, and some woodiness.

On tap at Otto’s. Sweet aroma. Tobacco and raisins, plum, vanilla, Twizzlers. Light oaky notes and a bit of hoppyness. Amber coppery clear, with thin off-white lacing head. Medium-heavy oily body, with medium-light carbonation. Silky and smooth. Starts with huge sweet sugary malt. Brown sugar, candy sugar, oak, vanilla. Treacle, perhaps. Very little bitterness to counteract the sugar. Cloying. This should sit down for a year or two, and I’d love to try it then. After is sweet and thick, with alcohol warming.

On tap, at brewpub. Pours a clear orangish amber with a large bubbled creamy beige head that had pretty good retention. The nose is extremelt sweet with lots of fruity esters of banana and bubblegum, candi sugar, and some noticable alcohol. Flavor is very sweet with lots of candi sugar and toffee. A good alcohol kick on the finish. This needs alot more yeast influence, both in flavor and to cut down on the sweetness. Mouthfeel is extremely thick and viscous with a soft fizzy carbonation level and a mouthcoating sticky finish. Overall, this was not their best offering. Kinda reminds me of Avery The Reverand, and in my mind that’s not a good thing.

12oz handbottle, courtesy of mj. Thanks, Mike! Pours a bright, viscous honey-amber color; oily and clear; headless with slight legs. Dense, maple syrup and candy sugar in the aroma; pretty sweet and sticky with a bit of alcohol coming through. Full, chewy candy sugar and maple syrup core; minimal carbonation, and quite viscous and heavy on the palate; tasty stuff: plenty of doughiness, sugar, and malt density. Lengthy, sticky sugar and maple syrup in the finish. I was surprised to see how low some of the other ratings were.

On tap at the brewpub. Aroma is a cranky, stippled reek of bathroom medicines, fermenting gourds and overly sweet sugar. Not appealing. Pours a amber-tinted gold, plain, clear and rimmed with whitish. Flavor yields an overly phenolic and biting Belgian yeast. Alcohol runs hot and the body sticky, cloying and overworked. There’s a lot a sense of yeast stress in this beer. Too much alcohol, fusels, and harsh grain chemicals. Really nothing pleasant about the component profiles of this beer. There are a few washes of pale mature fruits and bubbly bread spritzes, but generally it suffers from overproduction. Bold notes of bubblegum that puts it over the line for me. Finishes with confused mossy hop flash. Right up there with the Reverend.