$12.99 Arbor Place Beverage, Douglasville, GA, USA. 750 mL with one of those stay fresh caps – a cross between a cap and a cork.
Interesting story behind this purchase. I know for a fact that this particular bottle had been sitting on the shelves in the store for at least three years, and that the beer was almost certainly even older than that. I bought it with a little trepidation, but at the same time I was quite confident that the store had done the cellaring work for me. Took it down to the Brick Store for Dave, Mike, Lee and the gang to try. We were not disappointed.
Nice looking, cloudy orange pour with plenty of head, but that faded pretty quickly. The aromas were spiced as anticipated with some cinnamon, cardamon and a little all-spice. Quite strong in the nose.
Having smelled the beer I was half expecting some kind of wild onslaught against the tastebuds on the first swig, but I was amazed at how smooth it was. The spice had perfectly melded together to make a VERY mild tasting beer. A little orange zest, maybe some rosemary?? Some sweetness up front but this faded quickly to reveal more spice but it was extremely mellow. A tiny bit of funk, but not much at all – a small acidic bite. I’ve never had a fresh bottle of this so I have no frame of reference, but my guess is that the harsh spices mellow over time, and this is a beer that benefits greatly from aging. As Dave said, you could almost feel the mellowing of the taste – it felt aged!
All in all pretty interesting, and quite refreshing. It went down very well and was clearly a smoothed out beer that surprised me a lot. I was expecting something with much more edge; maybe the fresher bottles have that characteristic.