Chateau Civrac Old Ale
Penpont Brewery

 

 

Surprisingly dry, with some Brett character.

 

Chateau Civrac Old Ale - cask Aged Strong Ale from Penpont Brewery from Day 3 of The Craft BeerAdvent Calendar - The beer pours a deep copper colour with a thing head that rings the glass. The nose is definitely malt forward with some toffee hints and wood around the edges. I was expecting more maltiness in the initial flavour but instead got some fruity leafiness and hops which went away only to be replaced by malt, caramel and toffee. The wood isn't overly strong but does add some layers. As well the 7.5% ABV isn't over bearing in flavour. The mouthful is on the heavy side of medium. I really enjoyed this beer it reminds me a lot like the more commercial Innis & Gunn brews, which I enjoy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have a slight head cold so this may not be a fair review.

Pours a fairly clear copper. Minimal head.

Nose has some malt and some plum.

I pick up some oak and maybe a bit of a penny taste.

A liquid dessert;

Circulation returning

To fingers and toes.

 

Mmmm. Day 3 of my Craft BeerAdvent Calendar. Beers like this make me very happy that my wife paid too much for a mixed box of beer! This beer pours nicely, with minimal head and just enough carbonation. Slightly copper nose, good mouthfeel and complex flavor. I enjoyed the toffee, oak, dark fruit and caramel notes. The off-dry finish made me want more - this is a lovely beer!

330ml bottle, day 3 of the 2014 Craft Beer Advent calendar. Strange, almost Cyrillic depiction of the French winery's name on the front label.

This beer pours a clear, bright medium copper amber hue, with two skinny fingers of weakly puffy, and mostly just bubbly ecru head, which leaves some random coral reef lace around the glass as it quickly blows off.

It smells of bready caramel malt, subtle biscuity toffee, mildly astringent vinous barrel woodiness, a building funky tartness, the suggestion of paint thinner, and a very tame earthy, leafy bitterness. The taste is quite consistent in its sort of overwrought complexity - grainy, gritty caramel malt, muddled sour and funky red fruit, a still punchy woodiness, one more fibrous than toasted sugar in orientation, and an herbal, leafy, and somewhat perfumed hoppiness.

The carbonation is adequately frothy and fizzy in equal measures, the body a decent middleweight, and so-so in the smoothness department, the funk and herbal notes kind of tainting things. It finishes off-dry, the crackery caramel still having much to say, in the face of the hovering barrel character, one which seems to have lost a fair bit of its Bordeaux je ne sais quoi.

Lots going on here, but sometime complexity delves into complicated, rather than the true road to sublime, as is the goal for these sorts of beers. Tasty enough, but challenging to a degree, and always with the niggling of the idea of what this might be like with a few more years on it. At any rate, good to see stuff like this in the Advent calendar!