Gathering Storm
Howe Sound Inn & Brewing Company

 

This was very mild all around.

This one's okay. It's a little intense and heavy for my taste.

 

 

 

 

A: Rich tan head with a full spectrum of bubble sizes sitting atop a deep and dark walnut brown body. No light seems to get through, though it is clearly brown and not black.

S: Wonderful candied malt nose, dark fruits and red licorice along with a prickly citrus hops side.

T: The citrus bitterness is now all caught up to the sweet malts, whereas the nose was primarily sweet. Plum, grape, raisin, fig, and finishes grapefruit for me. Sweeter and maltier than I am used to for a CDA and I like it that way.

M: Creamy, well balanced

O: One of my favourite CDA's and has been for a couple years now.

 

 

 

1L swingtop bottle, part of the Carton of Coal seasonal gift pack here in Alberta. Suitably stark and forlorn looking label.

This beer pours a not all that dark reddish amber hue, with three fingers of bubbly, puffy, and chunky beige head, which leaves some decent cobwebbed lace around the glass as it lazily abates.

It smells of biscuity caramel malt, bittersweet chocolate, a soft ashy char, mild day-old coffee, subtle earthy black licorice, cooked citrus flesh, and musty pine needles. The taste is more big bready, nutty, and biscuity caramel malt, sturdy medium cocoa notes, somewhat acrid pine resin and leafy needles, a wilting anise and molasses darkness, sharp, yet at the same time indistinct citrus rind, a touch of stunted mint, and a weirdly removed pithy wet ash essence.

The bubbles are adequate in their mildly astringent support, the body a decent medium weight, and generally smooth, amongst a few friendly pokes and prods from the gadabout hops. It finishes rather dry, the caramel malt beholden to the biscuity, bready side of its id, the char holding fast, and the hops still loitering like aimless fucking teenagers.

One of the better examples of the style that I've yet come across, as the charred nature doesn't force itself on you, and allows the base malt and hop goodness to duly strut its stuff. And that extra ABV? Pffft. Hardly a twinge, yet I still have the urge to go use that tiny touque included in the gift pack as a pillow right now.

 

On draft at Tap & Barrel, Vancouver.

Muddy amber with sepia film - not especially dark.
Murphy's Oil Soap nose: wood, orange and some perfume.
Toffee and banana bread, then big resin, orange oil, and wintergreen hops.
Pot pourri end and piney linger.
Med, way chewy, oily.

Definitely an IPA, just not very "D". No real roastiness. OK, but not to style.

 

 

Howe Sound's "Gathering Storm" Cascadian Dark Ale @ 6.8% , from a 1 L pot stopper bottle
A-pours a dark brown with ruby hues along the glass edge , a foamy medium size tan head with some large spotty lacing the stein
S-fruit , spicey pine hops
T-crisp and clean , not as bitter as I was expecting , very dry finish
MF-nice little twang aftertaste , medium body , medium carbonation
Ov-reminds me of a hoppy brown ale , which is ok , at almost $9 a bottle rates as a maybe try one

cheers LampertLand

1L swinging pop top poured into pint glass 9/9/12

A dark cola leaning towards brown with a thumbs width of dense mocha foam that slowly falls, my glass get caked with lace this looks great

S coco, cold coffee, dark toffee and a little anise, faint hops with just a little pine and citrus but it could use some more

T slightly more hops then the nose with some rind on top of the nose but still much more dark malts then hops

M medium bodied with a creamy feel from the bubbles, a little grit left behind and slightly sticky on the lips

O decent beer but reminds me more of a hopped porter then a black IPA, the booze is well concealed so that's always nice

perhaps an old bottle with faded hops? 88_3053? not too sure what that means, perhaps I need to consult papat444's fresh beer only web page. decent beer but like mentioned above needs a fair bit more of the green stuff for my ideal black IPA