Honest Lawyer Spiced Ale
Court Avenue Brewing Company
- From:
- Court Avenue Brewing Company
- Iowa, United States
- Style:
- Herb and Spice Beer
- ABV:
- Not listed
- Score:
- +9 ratings needed
- Avg:
- 3.59 | pDev: 0%
- Ratings:
- | reviews: 1
- Status:
- Retired
- Rated:
- Nov 23, 2005
- Added:
- Nov 23, 2005
- Wants:
- 0
- Gots:
- 0
NO SCORE
-
-
No description / notes.
Recent ratings and reviews.
Reviewed by BuckeyeNation from Iowa
3.59/5 rDev 0%
look: 3 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
3.59/5 rDev 0%
look: 3 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
Root beer brown on the dark wood bar, lucent reddish bronze when backlit. The ecru head was exceedingly small and lasted mere minutes. By the time I got my change back it was a spotty, thin film on the liquid's surface. A paltry amount of watery lace was noted, but didn't last very long either. Even though I liked the color, the head/lace combination failed to reach the low bar that I've set for local brewpub beer.
The nose reminded me of a pumpkin ale, but darker. A little chocolate malt perhaps? It was heavy on the pumpkin pie spices, with cinnamon being especially prominent. A cinnamon ale (a good idea by the way) wouldn't smell a whole lot different than this one did. Other pie spices made an impression as well, allspice and maybe even coriander. Actually, I don't believe too many pumpkin pie recipes call for coriander.
The aroma did not lead me astray. HLSA tasted like a pumpkin ale made with chocolate malt (or at least a chocolate/caramel mix) rather than pale malt. In fact, I have the perfect dessert comparison: heavily spiced black bottom pumpkin pie with no whipped cream.
Unfortunately, it suffered the fate of too much brewpub beer around these parts: a shortage of malt. Rather than being full, sweet and spicy, it was light-medium, bitter, dry and spicy. There was a little too much unsupported hop bitterness without a corresponding amount of hop flavor. If anything, coriander may have outshone cinnamon on the palate. It would have been a much better beer with more malty guts.
It took me most of the pint to come to a conclusion about the mouthfeel. I ultimately settled on slightly better than average. As previously noted, the mouthfeel was light-medium at best and contained a generous amount of fine-bubbled, but slightly harsh feeling carbonation. It wasn't a deterrent to multiple pints, but it wasn't an invitation to them either.
Honest Lawyer Spiced Ale (or as I like to call it, 'Oxymoronic Ale') was an interesting brew. Heavy on the spices and light on the malt pretty much sums it up. The Court Avenue brewmaster has hit on a good, somewhat original idea and has picked a great name. However, the recipe needs to be tweaked for me to want to invest in another pint.
Nov 23, 2005The nose reminded me of a pumpkin ale, but darker. A little chocolate malt perhaps? It was heavy on the pumpkin pie spices, with cinnamon being especially prominent. A cinnamon ale (a good idea by the way) wouldn't smell a whole lot different than this one did. Other pie spices made an impression as well, allspice and maybe even coriander. Actually, I don't believe too many pumpkin pie recipes call for coriander.
The aroma did not lead me astray. HLSA tasted like a pumpkin ale made with chocolate malt (or at least a chocolate/caramel mix) rather than pale malt. In fact, I have the perfect dessert comparison: heavily spiced black bottom pumpkin pie with no whipped cream.
Unfortunately, it suffered the fate of too much brewpub beer around these parts: a shortage of malt. Rather than being full, sweet and spicy, it was light-medium, bitter, dry and spicy. There was a little too much unsupported hop bitterness without a corresponding amount of hop flavor. If anything, coriander may have outshone cinnamon on the palate. It would have been a much better beer with more malty guts.
It took me most of the pint to come to a conclusion about the mouthfeel. I ultimately settled on slightly better than average. As previously noted, the mouthfeel was light-medium at best and contained a generous amount of fine-bubbled, but slightly harsh feeling carbonation. It wasn't a deterrent to multiple pints, but it wasn't an invitation to them either.
Honest Lawyer Spiced Ale (or as I like to call it, 'Oxymoronic Ale') was an interesting brew. Heavy on the spices and light on the malt pretty much sums it up. The Court Avenue brewmaster has hit on a good, somewhat original idea and has picked a great name. However, the recipe needs to be tweaked for me to want to invest in another pint.
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