Friday, January 12, 2007

Beer Tasting: Sand Creek English Style Special Ale


The Beer: Sand Creek Brewing English Style Pale Ale
Style: English Pale/Brown Ale
Reviews: Beer Advocate Rate Beer
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Packaging & Date Stamping: 12 oz. brown bottle; No date stamp

From where & how stored: purchased at Brennan's in Madison, WI in June '06; transported home by airplane; stored at 42F ever since

Pricing: $x.xx

Availability: Year-round

ABV, IBU, and Other Available Stats: N/A
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Bryan's Notes
The Look:
- very little head even with aggressive pour; thins immediately
- pours kind of like an apple cider; looks a bit like tea
- fairly clear

The Aroma:
- not much aroma at all
- faint barley malt
- bit of nuttiness (peanut-y)

The Taste:
- taste is slightly bigger than the aroma, but not much
- light molasses
- carbonation helps bring a bit of life to the beer
- nice little bitter kick in the middle to end

The Verdict: This beer is not overly anything. But, while my opinion in the first few minutes was certainly underwhelming, it turned out to be a drinkable beer for sure, but lacking that certain flavor that I would have appreciated in this amber ale.
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Adam's Notes
The Look:
- cloudy when cold

The Aroma:
- very malt grain aromatic

The Taste:
- doesn't live up to the nose
- letting it warm up a bit
- suffers from some kind of off beer taste many brewpub beers have

The Verdict: Not too impressed. I wouldn't throw it out, but, I won't buy it again.

1 comment:

Eli said...

I got a couple beers from Sand Creek in a trade: Oscar's Chocolate Oatmeal Stout and Wild Ride IPA.
They were both pretty good. Neither one was amazing but both were solid brews from a brewery I'd never tried.