Richly balanced unfiltered holiday ale spreads candi-sugared gooseberry tang across spicy dried fruiting and syrupy liqueur-like sugaring. Bittersweet damson plum, stewed prune, green raisin, dark cherry and fig illusions gain prominence over lightly creamed caramel malting. Wintry cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger seasoning softly fluctuates.
On tap at Pony Bar, approachable beechwood-smoked German moderation needs thicker malt smokiness and better cured meat spicing. Stylish Band-Aid astringency almost forsakes fading peat-smoked beechwood influence and damp campfire aromatics. Glazed ham and candied apple sweeten its soft-toned core.
Though doubling the bittersweet Dutch chocolate used in Rogue Chocolate Stout, this newer version is not richer, creamier or better than the original. Nevertheless, its debonair dark chocolate malting will satiate mocha lovers of all stripes. Fudgy creme de cocoa and creme brulee illusions sweeten its lofty oats-honeyed chocolate entry. Tertiary chocolate chip cookie, dark toffee, maple molasses, milked coffee and vanilla nuances help contrast dry hop-charred bittering. Perfect for dessert.
Malt-heightened version of Millstream’s Munich-styled Schild Brau Amber places mildly creamed Vienna malting and crayon-like grouted hops inside honeyed wheat Graham Cracker theme. Caramel, butterscotch and sugar cookie illusions sidle apple-candied cherry tartness above doughy breading. Dewy peat moss dampens the main frame. Just a bit unwieldy.
Mildly interesting bronze-hazed moderation brings burnt buttered popcorn aromatics to soft pretzel-breaded wheat spine. Perky Seltzer hop fizz enlivens doughy pretzel scamper as well as tertiary sesame, poppy and caraway illusions. Stylistically – not related to any Shock-Top Belgian yeast strain yet encountered.
Clearly confusing red ale styling (in a can) at least betters brewers’ nasty gluten-free American Pale Ale. Shrill metallic shards scrape the inside of the musty millet-grained chestnut groove. Muffled flavor profile also tosses buckwheat, molasses and candy syrup into the confounding mix. Ashen nutty coarseness helps ruin the dank malt finish.
Canned gluten-free misadventure. Millet-grained buckwheat parch picks up cloying candy syrup nature. Acrid hop astringency ruins murky cherry-berry off-tones.
Reclusive, loosely defined, wheat-smoked German lightweight goes for subtler stylistic approach and nearly works as a crossover. But its unspecific peat-smoked cedar char and seared meat niche succumb to wavering flavor profile. Warbled chocolate-spiced malting and nutty fruit sprucing hit a snag, never fully penetrating the surface. Sputtering pecan-buttered almond and chestnut undertones never fully integrate with dried-fruited stewed prune, pureed raisin and dried fig sedation (or tangy red cherry, red apple, navel orange and berry notions). Distant honey-glazed ham and banana nut cake nuances dry up.
Overreaching Estonian dark lager suffers from murky earthen hop coarsening working against pleasant, if musty, chocolate-spiced burnt caramel malting and ancillary fig-cherry conflux. At its center, molasses-sugared medium body recalls peanut-buttered Mary Jane candy bar, hard toffee and marzipan. But nasty astringency cuts like a knife.
Lemony vanilla-creamed luster invites honeyed tropical fruiting and floral-spiced herbage to the party. Prickly hop fizz adds carbolic spritz and white-peppered Belgian yeast fungi provides contrasting bitterness. Coriander spicing trickles into ancillary nectarine, mandarin orange and peach sweetness as well as tart grapefruit, pineapple and mango tropicalia. Champagne grape, orange marmalade, lemon custard and almondine undertones add complexity.