Ageless
RedWillow Brewery

Sep. 2013: 330 ml bottle conditioned, as Redwillow Ageless Double IPA, at Cardinal Pub & Bar, Stavanger. ABV is 7.2%. Deep golden colour, slightly hazy. Huge and lasting white head. Strong aroma of fruity American hops (esp. oranges), also notes of pine and sweetish crystal malts. Sweet flavour with plenty of crystal malts and American hops, notes of oranges, grapefruit and resin. Very bitter finish.

Bottled and bottle conditioned
Very hazy gold. Messy, lasting, white head. Sweet, chewy malt, and sweet, chewy hop in equal measure. Notes of pine resin. Walk in the woods dankness. Notes of strawberry and banana. Taste is toffee sweet, turning resinous bitter. Full body. Soft fizz. Hop oiliness. Finishes long, juicy, resinous bitter. Great stuff

Rock solid, snow white meringue head of foam over pale bronze body.
Nose is straight up fresh hop cones - resiny, skunky, herbal and oily. There are hints of flowers, oranges, and pastry dough, but you have to work to get them. Intoxicating.
Mango and caramel peak at the start but are cut off by jagged piney bitterness that suddenly shifts to sweet citrus hoppiness to end.
Tangerine ice pop and pink grapefruit finish and endless numbing lime sorbet linger that eventually has a pinch of aspirin.
Medium, some chew, a bit of tin, the right amount of fizz.

Gorgeous head and super nose - starts the right way. Brings the kind of hop dose (US only, if I had to guess) in stages, turning from one flavor to another, that I usually only get from California. The ABV is buried, the IBUs are not overdone - we'll be here a while if I try to say everything this beer does right.

Probably the best new school British IPA.

AGELESS (7.2% VOL) - TASTING NOTES

THIS BIG AMERICAN STYLE IPA PROVIDES A HUGE INITIAL HIT OF MANGO, LYCHEE AND PINEAPPLE, FOLLOWED BY A LONG, CLEAN BITTER FINISH. ONE OF OUR SIGNATURE BEERS.

PROBABLY THE BEST OF THE RED WILLOW BUNCH, I FEEL THEY FOCUS MORE ON THE REAL ALE THEN CRAFT SIDE OF THINGS

Purchased from the BeerRitz online beer shop; bottle-conditioned in a 330ml slim brown bottle, BB May 2014, served mildly chilled in Gulden Draak’s short-stemmed tulip-shaped sniffer.

Appearance: pours a murky blood-orange like dark reddish amber in colour, coming with seemingly light carbonation and a good layer of foamy off-white beer head to last.
Smell: sweet and intensively aromatic without being overly heavy – perfumy floral, lychee-ish, peachy, grapefruity, piney hoppiness comes on top of a rather thick bedrock of caramel and pale malts, plus mild phenolic notes from the yeast sediments quite… disturbed by my careless pour. Yet, overall it is interestingly… balanced.
Taste: juicy elderflowery, citric/grapefruity, overripe fruit-estery, and piney in terms of hops and yeasts without going too oily/resinous, while the malt components provide a decent platform overall; turning immediately chewy bitter but not really harsh, with a sound dose of acidity on the balance, leaving nicely lingering mineral-ish and lychee-shell-ish aromatically tannic feel in the long finish.
Mouthfeel & Overall: softly carbonated, smooth on the palate but each sip concludes with the lively tannic feel; this full-bodied, full-flavoured DIPA is incredibly quaffable I’ve found. The yeast sediments also add extra phenolic touches to the overall enjoyment, which I wholehearted welcome. Well recommended.

 

 

 

A 330ml bottle with a BB of May 2012. Picked up the other day from my local beer specialist - RedWillow's beers have just appeared on the shelves. I like the stylised emblem on the label.

Poured into a Delirium chalice. A hazy orange-amber colour with good carbonation. Produces a large head of creamy, off-white foam with excellent retention; it eventually subsides to a thick surface layer. A slightly sweet aroma with hints of fruity yeast, like a Belgian beer, and a distinct lack of aromatic hops. Hints of sourness, oxidation and a sharp vinegary note. Worrying.

Tastes of dry, fruity yeast with a hoppy bitter finish. A dominant note of earthy yeast esters followed by malt, spicy citrus and peel. Slightly sour, dry, vinous and oxidised. Bitter hops upon swallowing. Mouthfeel is smooth and tingly, but unusually dry. A sensation of yeast coating the palate. Aftertaste of earthy yeast, oxidation and bitter aromatic hops.

My impression, from the first sniff, was that this bottle is oxidised/infected. The aroma in particular has strong hints of sourness and vinegar. The taste isn't as bad, but still well off-balance. Tons of yeasty aroma/flavour, but the intense hoppiness that you would expect from a DIPA is missing - just a hint in the flavour. All in all, not very good. A pity, as I only heard of this brewery recently and was looking forward to trying this. I don't know if this is just a batch problem, but if you get one - caveat emptor.