Theakston Old Peculier (Bottle)

Purple/black color -nice tan head- dark roast coffee, bananas, mocha and yeast – silky milk chocolate taste, small hops and ruby port taste – aftertaste sweet and refreshing

Pours reddish brown with a diminishing but lacy beige head. Aromas of banana and malt. Light to medium body, with light carbonation. The taste is malty, earthy, toffee, vanilla and some other flavors I really can’t identify. Quick and slightly bitter molasses-covered banana finish. An interesting change of pace.

Vegetabely, munich aroma, with a touch of earthy hops. Nice ruby pour. Taste is slightly veggie, though has a nice sugary sweet taste that is complemented by gentle hopping. Thin and watery, though still a bit quaffable.

May 10, 2006; 12 oz. bottle

Quite dark, roasty, smoky & bitter. Faint aroma. The heavy malts satisfy in spite of a slightly-watery palate. Could be the red-headed stepchild of Fullers ESB.

Re-rate on March 30, 2007: This "old ale" has grown on me. Fairly complex Remarkable complexity, with notes of dark fruit and banana (as advertised). Sweet, but not in a distracting way. I love this beer, and just wish that it was so pricy & hard-to-get.

A deep red colour with medium carbonation and a small tan head. Smells fruity, caramel, vanilla, but also a lot of alcohol. Tastes roasty, a bit sour, and a bit bitter- the sweetness is still there but now its like grapes, and more citrusy. The palate is light, almost fluffy, a bit watery too, also a little bit of a weird chemically taste.

Pours blood red with some yellow tinged hues. Not much of a head. The nose is hmmm, peculier? There’s some sweet dark fruits in there, but then there’s also some tar and resinous alcohol. The body is a little thin, though it’s creamy enough. The flavors are even more baffling than the aromas. I get the initial sweet dark fruit, but then there’s more roast than I expected with some considerable smoke, tar and chemically tastes. The aftertaste is a strange sort of bitter. I’m not a huge fan of this beer, though it is certainly interesting even if it is peculier.

Bottled version. Superb, love this beer. Good heavy taste, not cloyingly sweet. Did I say I love this beer? :)

Slight aroma of fruit and malt. Beautiful color (if you hold to a strong light). A plummy flavor (think Dr. Pepper a bit). The bitter is actually rather light. A thin, slightly sweet finish. Aftertaste is like a light version of La Binchoise Brune. This is really good stuff. Try Black Sheep’s Riggwelter for the younger generation’s version of this classic.