Old Man (Winter Ale)
Lovely copper colour with a small, but persistent light tan head. The aroma is a little musty with some light caramel, toffee and earthy hop notes. I'm getting the feeling that Southern Tier likes some hops more than others as I am getting a similar hop aroma here to that in their Raspberry Porter. This is an interesting take on a winter beer. The initial attack is full on with lots of malt and toffee flavours. It then flows into a lot of bitterness without much hop flavour. What is there is a little earthy (Willamette maybe?). As a whole it doesn't do much for me as it seems unbalanced. Medium-light body with moderately high carbonation. It's okay but not what I expected. This is an okay beer. It has flavour but the bitterness is out of balance with the rest of the beer and adds a harshness which I don't appreciate.