Weary earthen-grained rawness and card-boarded barley-oats blandness slacken dried-out peach-tangerine astringency. Buttery phenol offing doesn’t help matters.
Category Archives: Beers A-Z
WOODSTOCK INN LOON GOLDEN ALE
Easygoing dry orange smattering confronts sedated yeast-sugared honeyed butterscotch linger. Backend blends cork-y aridness with earthy wildflower and bitter grapefruit notes.
(WYE VALLEY) BUTTYBACH ALE
Bland alcohol-burnt, bottle-conditioned, yellow-ambered English pale ale offers pleasant caramelized butterscotch malting to contrast zesty citric bittering and floral-herbal hints to salty bottom. But interceptive astringency and bland finish diminish charred hop lick.
YARDS GENERAL WASHINGTON TAVERN PORTER
Old World brown-bodied porter gains black-malted burnt caramel affluence as dark chocolate, dried tobacco, bitter coffee, and syrupy molasses rally ’round raisin-plum variance. Mild bourbon flourish fills out bittersweet mocha finish adequately.
YOUNG’S RAM ROD PALE ALE
Toasted pale malt efficiency soothes dry piney hop bitterness. Mild caramel-cocoa backdrop provides sharp Scottish Ale-like resonation for ruddy white-headed Londoner. But slack bite, barren fruitiness, and dwindling soapy finish substantially lower grain-centered resilience.
ZATEC PILSNER
Taking into account its ‘sell by’ date was overdue by December ’04, possibly deterring mediocre Czech lagers’ chances, its butterscotch tingle and oily popcorn backdrop form musty yeast-soured center. Brisk Saaz hops enliven minor citric zest.
ABBAYE D’AULNE BROWN ALE
Deliciously provocative digestif boasts insinuating burgundy aromatics, head-on carbolic briskness, candied yeast tongue, and buttery caramel quotient. Bubbly champagne fizz surrounds musty raisin-fig conflux and overripe melon-cantaloupe sentiment to subtle black cherry coughdrop finish of the most uncommonly complex brown ale on the market.
ABITA GOLDEN
Dank doughy sweetness and lemony diacetyl vagary limit clear straw dry-bodied lightweight. Astringent corn malts and parched grass-hay hint don’t help matters.
ADNAMS SUFFOLK EXTRA ALE
Soft-watered fuggle-hopped mineral-grained entry lightens flow of cask conditioned ‘strong’ ale (available in bottle or can). Lingering mild hop bittering masks grassy herbal fruiting. An unobtrusive turnabout for those afraid of thicker, stronger ales.
ALASKAN AMBER ALT ALE
Creamy reddish golden Scotch-malted alt nestles brown-sugared caramel nuttiness alongside subtle hop bitterness. Vanilla-creamed cherry, peach and spiced apple illusions come and go while wispy grape, orange and fig undertones barely register. Stronger grain roasted resilience would’ve been nice.
ALLAGASH BLACK BELGIAN STYLE STOUT
Dramatic Belgian-styled chocolate stout works Blackstrap molasses thicket into candi-sugared black chocolate-spiced initiation and apprehensive oats-flaked hop-charred espresso-mochaccino reminder of musty 7.5% alcohol full body. At midst, vague coffee-grounded charred coal insinuation coarsens murky blackberry-blueberry-pureed digression. Peated hazelnut-walnut slunk, wavered pumpernickel toasting, gnarly tobacco chew spew and tertiary anise-currant bittering disperse lactic black chocolate lead-in.
ALLGAUER TEUTSCH PILS
Lemony floral-hopped light body gets honeyed wheat sedation before silky sugar malts deplete dank yeast sourness and straw grass waft by dry toasted barley finish.