Old Time Hockey Ale
The Merchant Ale House Restaurant & Brew Pub

Pours a dark woody colour, about the same as the label. Not quite see-through. Nice lacing sticks on my glass.
Smells like a stout, roasted malts slightly sweet. The taste is exactly what a red/brown ale should be. Nutty, toasty, sweet. A very good example of the style
July 27 2020

Appearance: Poured with a half finger of head that did not lace or retain, the body is a clear muddy amber showing very little in the way of carbonation. It almost looks like it came out flat.

Smell: Toffee and caramel malt with an earthy backdrop with maybe a hint of walnut in there. The potency leaves much to be desired but warming did help it's case a bit.

Taste: There is a bit of an identity crisis here, as it's not sure if it want to be a brown ale or an amber pale ale. There is a dose of sweet toffee malt to start with a hint of nut, but it's far too light to be a brown ale proper. It then turns to earthy hops which don't quite sell it as a pale ale either, as it seems to clash poorly with the initial moderate sweetness.

Mouthfeel: The transitioning isn't great, as it's trying to run too far of a spectrum and the bitter hand-off doesn't go well. Another downside is the beer is practically flat by the half way mark, which I think is doing it some favours here to be honest as it doesn't let those earthy hops get out of control. At least the aftertaste is a nice mild mix of what this one offers.

Drinkability: Well it's on the lighter side of medium body, so it has that going for it. It's certainly refreshing, and despite the rocky road drinking it doesn't offend so much that I want to stop drinking it.

Final Thoughts: Like I said earlier, this beer has an identity crisis. It's trying to be a nutty sweet brown ale and a hoppy crisp amber pale ale. and doing a disservice to both. I mean, I'd certainly want it over most generic lagers, don't get me wrong and the carbonation likely would be resolved on tap, but for the most part I wasn't exactly inspired by this one.

Poured from tap into nonic at the brewpub in st catherines Ontario. Way to not brown to be a brown ale...mostly red. It does have a nice creamy head.
Nice caramel aromas...crisp malts and some ever so slight fruity notes. Flavor of caramel and maybe english maris otter malt?...super mild and light but nice rounded flavor. Very easy to drink...and nice. This place really has its English brews down....a pleasure to drink.

 

 

 

It smelled nutty, and malty.

Looked copper in colour. Some head, poor head retention. No lace.

Tasted bready, nutty. Some malty sweet caramel flavours too (they came out more when it warmed up a bit).

Mouthfeel was ok. Medium bodied, carbonation was a little crisp.

Overall I think it's a good Beer, but I would enjoy it more if it weren't so crisp.

A root beer as sasaparilla, mixed with some cheap lager. Doesn't work for aroma or atste or mouthfeel. Watery. To me this was an amber, but they were promoting it like a brown. There is some brown taste mid-sip, fresh and lace, taste did not work for me.