McAuslan Vintage Ale (2001)
McAuslan Brewing

Bottle (2001 vintage): Poured a deep red/amber colored beer with a small but nice head with minimal retention. Aroma is quite sweet, very reminiscent of uncooked chocolate cookie dough. Taste is quite complex with a nice touch of prune or port and spicy aftertaste. Overall, this is a very good barley wine but a notch below the 2000 version.

This well-aged brew poured a deep caramel colour with slight haze and a thin white head. The fine bubbles remained for quite some time and left small, spotty clumps stuck to the glass. Malty, caramel aroma with notes of apples and sherry. Very nice. Mellow flavour with rich malt, caramel, apple, and a hint of hop flavour after all this time. Mild bitterness with just a bit of oxidation. Solid body with fairly low carbonation and a silky texture. This has held up quite well. Very enjoyable and definitely a good find if you locate it.

2001 Vintage, aged better part of 5 years.**
Nice pour, moderate head. Sherry like scent comes through, followed by other fruity features and bold malty notes. Beautiful appearence. This beer has held up fantastically through the years. Flavour has mellowed (to a point of pefrect mouthfeel/drinkability) but has slightly hindered the flavour. While it could use more flavour what is there is incredibly pronouced. This is immensely smooth and mellowed out wonderfully. Light on the spices and some caramelized malts. The Munich fits well. Very malty while still on the lighter body side. Spicy notes excellent thought. Aged beautifully!

Appearance – Pours a very nice deep brown with a touch of amber. It has a very small cap of thin white head.

Smell – This beer smells heavily of sweet toffee, brown sugar, bread, and hops. It’s very strong and extremely nice to sniff.

Taste – It starts off with a pleasant alcohol bite. I taste an almost burnt toast flavor with sweet maltiness to follow. It is also strong of toffee with slight fruit like aspects to it. The finish is slightly bitter from the hops. Very nice.

Mouthfeel – This beer has a subtle carbonation and a good thick consistency. No complaints at all.

Drinkability – Not bad. It’s strong which makes it a sipper but it’s wonderful to taste. I found it a touch rough though.

An excellent brew. I’m glad I came across this in Montréal cause I am never gonna see this one again.

Pours a hazy orange/brown, small off white head forms, some nice lace and great retention. Smell is sweet and very malty, vinous, some citrus and vanilla, sherry in the finish. Taste is sherry, sweet malt, vanilla, dates and vinous character. Mouthfeel is medium to full bodied with low carbonation. A very nice treat, and a pretty tasty vintage ale. Thanks DrJay and biegaman!

Pours a uniform dark brown with a hint of redness to it. No head, but I didn't expect any.

A powerful sweet smell. Heavy with molasses and overripe berries. Almost enough booziness in there to give the impression of being a scotch. Enough aroma to keep me sniffing away looking for more.

Taste has a smokey sweetness to it. Baked bread, candied fruits, some caramel and a burst of molasses to finish. The taste is followed quickly by a warmth from the alcohol. This beer lets you know it has some substance to it.

The mouthfeel is silky smooth with plenty of body and a faint carbonation that allows the beer to be savoured. I've given this full points for drinkability, because this beer was made to be savoured, and its qualities fit that profile just right.

I don't expect to ever have another bottle of this beer again, and it is a shame. Very pleasant brew.

Oh my. Comes in a very attractive and light-stopping cardboard tube. Inside it is a nice, but rather typical, 12-oz bottle. Pours rather clear as long as you avoid the thick layer of yeast that is on the bottom of the bottle and attests to the unfiltered nature of this brew. Pretty, small-bubbled head is creamy and laces well. A really great color to this beer shows shades of red, orange, brown, and black. And the smell, oh the smell. Caramel-toffee covered mandarin oranges with a peppery heat yet a comforting thick sweetness. Taste is smoky caramel that along with the super-smooth mouthfeel has the danger of coming across as candyish but is instead kept mysterious and dangerous by the biting warmth that spreads and the unexpected depths of dark fruits. Its waves of flavor parallel my waves of amazement, as it goes innocent to brash, to quiet, to confident. Infinitely heavenly. Divine.

Pours a hazy mahogany in color with a thin, wispy (but persistant!) light tan head. The first whiff highlights this brew's strong alcohol flavor, even after four years of aging. This mellows a bit but never entirely disappears, and the eventual impression is of oak-aged whiskey, cherries, and toffee malts. Delicious. More yummy yummy malt in the flavor, still somewhat toasty in character but with decided notes of tart fruit and a still-significant alcohol presence to the finish. Full bodied and moderately sweet in the finish. This is a treat.