 jjpm74 (2811), Connecticut, USA
Jul 15, 2008 Pours orange with a thin white head. Smells of caramel, some citrus. Tastes resiny and earthy with a peppery finish. Decent.
csbosox (956), Prairie Village, Kansas, USA
Jul 12, 2008 12oz bottle, brought to the 7/07 tasting by Theisti. The bottle was about a year old at the time. Mild earthy and citrus aroma. Taste is honey, pine, and stinging bitterness with alcohol and pine in the finish. This is a year old, granted, but it doesn’t seem to have enough flavor hops.
Snojerk321 (925), San Diego, California, USA
Jun 28, 2008 12oz bottle. A slightly disappointing brew from Saint Arnold. Poured a thick caramel amber with virtually no lacing. Slight hint of musty herbal hops on the nose with a ton of malt on the finish.
miketd (331), Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Apr 13, 2008 Thanks to lb4lb for the brew! Thanks, dude! Pour is a beautiful pumpkin color with a very small off white head. Aroma of overipe fruit and still a bit of citrusy hop. Flavor still retains a glimpse of the bitterness that was intended, but sweet malt is more dominant. The body is smooth and very drinkable. I’m sure this is a differant beer at this point, but it is very good. I don’t find anything off. I continue to be impressed with this line of SA.
FlacoAlto (2047), Tucson, Arizona, USA
Apr 11, 2008 A reasonably vigorous pour produces an almost two-finger thick, frothy, amber tinged, tan colored head. The beer is a brilliantly clear, cranberry-juice color and shows a bright, red-tinged, copper color when held up to the light. As I pour this beer I get juicy notes of caramelized malt and hops that have started to age. Age has given this a rich, malty, savory character; light tamari, lots of caramelized grain notes and lots of toasty, bread-like malt aromatics. The hop character has become predominantly pine & herbal smelling though there is still a bit of a candied-citrus-peel backdrop to the nose.
Big flavors of pine sap, menthol and sharp herbal hops hit my tongue as I take my first sip. Much of any malt sweetness is drowned out by the up front hop character. The hop notes really linger on through the flavor profile of this beer; ultimately providing a linger herbal astringency and biting bitterness that lingers on the tongue for quite some time. The hop flavors lean towards being a little bit metallic and also have a green tobacco character to them. The malt character, while clearly secondary, provides a backdrop of flavors that contribute notes of lightly browned bread crust, biscuit notes, and some caramelized grain notes. While this beer tastes clearly aged (even more than its year and a half might suggest), it is not so noticeable as be degraded; Oxidation has definitely started, muting the hops just a touch (though they are still aggressive & piquant), and changing the malt character, introducing touches of sherry and a definite umami richness. Not overly heavy, though definitely a sipping beer; the aggressive hop character seems to make this drink a little lighter than the actual heft.
I can’t believe how aggressively hoppy the flavor still is, this must have been out of control when younger. With this much hash hop character still evident this beer may still be a few years from peaking.
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