Pike Tandem Double Ale

Brewed by Pike Pub & Brewery
Style: American Strong Ale
Seattle, Washington USA

Cloudy dark amber with a medium off white head. Aroma woas sweet with rwoasted malt, caramel and ripe frutis. Flavour was sweet with caramel and chocolate. Finished sweet.l

Bottle. Clear red brown coloured with a medium sized off white head. Sweet and fruity aroma of caramel and cocoa powder with notes of spices and alcohol. Fruity flavour of caramel, spices and coriander. Spicy and fruity finish.

22 fl oz bottle. Pours cloudy dark brown with an amber glare and minimal white head. Smooth caramel malty note with a mild spice note. Sweet malty and solid hoppy flavoured with a distinct bitter flavour with a nice hoppy touch. Bitter and mild hoppy fruity finish.

A vigorous pour into my 25cl tulip glass produces a four-finger thick, frothy, fairly dense, amber tinged, tan colored head. The beer is a dark, burnt amber color that shows a clear, cranberry hue when held up to the light. Sticky, sweet, caramelized malt aromas are noticeable as I pour this brew and a more focused look at the nose tempers this nicely with lots of toasted malt and browned whole grain bread notes. This is definitely heavily focused on caramelized malt, but there seems to be a touch of herbal / citrus hop character just noticeable underneath the heavy malt. There is a soft, toasted nuttiness here towards the end of the aroma. There is also a fair amount of caramelized, berry fruit notes in the nose.

Rich and creamy up front, sweet malt dominates as it starts to move across the tongue, but a herbal, lightly biting bitterness actual comes in to play and lingers on a bit in the finish (surprisingly for only 25 listed IBUs, though definitely on the light side). The finish really ends with some toasted, whole grain leaning, almost grain husk notes that ca not quite dry out the up front sweet malt. Some berry, or sweet raisin notes get wrapped up in the caramelized malt sweetness that is prominent in this beer and there is a soft, but noticeable, grapefruit-leaning citrus character here towards the middle. A touch of almost roasted grain towards the finish can at times taste a bit nutty, but definitely adds a solid toasted whole grain bread character to this beer. While this definitely has a body to it, I like that it has a certain creaminess to it without being overly heavy, it even manages to have a certain quaffable quality to it. As the beer warms up the malt begins to smooth out / over-take the bitterness.

Not a bad beer, you definitely need to enjoy a crystal malt balanced / focused brew, and this does have a touch of malt astringency to it, but it is actually pretty decent.

A deep red-tinted amber pour with a small tan head. Aroma of sweet malt, sugar, and some hops. Strong barley malt flavor right off the bat, followed by some mollases and cane sweetness, and finishing with a slow burn.

Bottle... Pours a deep mahogany with cedar red highlights and a thick, offwhite head. Aroma is malty biscuit and weak chocolate. Flavor is malty, smoke soaked grapefruit and cereal. Leaves a lingering smoky bitterness. Definitely not what I was expecting but it was a pleasant surprise nonetheless.

Bomber courtesy of SoLan. Pours brown with a small cream head. A little foamy, a little lacing. A malt slightly spicy and earthy hop prescence, strong caramel aroma. A bit sweet, more caramel in the flavor, yeasty bready notes. A touch bitter on the end. Fairly smooth, med carb.

Bomber. Not a bad deep brown pour with mininmal head. Quite malty and landing on the fruity, cardboard side with a caramel vanilla toasted touch. Not much in the way of hoppyness but it is felt physically on the palate. Decent, but I was hoping for a little more from this one.