Fort Ticonderoga
Gun Hill Brewing Company

Dark, brown color. Medium-sized, off-white head. Dried fruits, toffees, molasses, wood, and vanilla in the aroma. Sweet, malty taste is balanced by bitter notes of wood and hops.

 

 

 

13 May 2020 - Beer #93

Corona Day #62

Price: $4.99 at Bread & Honey in Manhattan

Appearance: 4 - nice for a barleywine. Dark reddish brown. Small white head leaving lovely lacing.

Nose: 5 - you get everything here. Intensely sweet, plenty of rum. Dark fruits, like dried prunes and dates.

Taste: 4 - really quite delicious. I admit, I wasn't expecting much. Intensely sweet, like the nose. Very fruit-forward. The sweetness is a tad fake.

Mouth: 4 - this is really hurting my teeth. A bit sticky, not too thick.

Overall: 4 - a bit of a surprise here. I am impressed. And I can only assume their barrel program had improved.

Stay safe out there, my friends.

Cheers!

This one pours a rich golden dark brown color, with surprisingly big fluffy head, and lots of lacing.

This smells sugar, raisin juice, heavy duty rum, Mexican cola, and caramel.

This is definitely a bit messy. It's extremely sweet, with raisins and prune dominating, instead of that silky caramel/toffee maltiness I look for in this style. The rum also dominates, but not in a good way - I don't get much added spice or oak - just kind of rum cake sort of sweetness. This is all to say that this is much too sweet. As it warms, it gets a little bit more tolerable, and bumps up the rating a little bit.

This is kind of syrupy, but a bit creamy, at least, with no real booziness to it.

This is a little underdone and messy. It's just too sweet.

 

 

Decanted from a 12 oz (355 ml) can into a muffin top, taster pint glass; canned of 3/11/19.
A: Pours a clear, deep dark brown color with beautiful garnet hightlights, a one finger, tan to light brown head, rapidly resolving to rim retention and limited lacing.
S: Tart side of tangy. Aromas of rum, milk chocolate, pumpernickel, cherry, raisin, molasses, and, did I say rum?
T: Sweet and slightly tart. Flavor picture very consistent with nose initially, especially the rum, raisin, molasses and pumpernickel. Cane sugary. Orange rind? Maybe. Bitterness very present, but a bit overwhelmed by the sweetness and flavors.
M: Medium to full bodied with low carbonation. Thicker the second time around.
O: In fairness, when I first had it, it had aged less than a year and that may be a feature of how it came across. Didn't really mesh at that point, but was getting there by 05/16/2020.

 

A: The beer is very dark brown in color and has some traces of amber hues when held up to a bright light. It poured with a short off white head that died down a bit but never completely faded away.
S: Moderate to strong aromas of rum from the barrel aging are present in the nose.
T: Like the smell, the taste is dominated by flavors of rum and has notes of cherries along with some sweetness.
M: It feels a bit more than medium-bodied on the palate and has a moderate amount of carbonation.
O: This beer definitely tastes strong, but isn’t a bad selection if you like rum.

Serving type: can

A: Stained mahogany. 1F of beige head.

S: Monkey bread, spiced fruit cake...figs, molasses, brown sugar, toffee and almond.

T/M: Banana sky forest raining sun-maid golden oranges. Peanut toffee brittle...caramelized and roast derived sweetness. Malt seems flaked and doughy keeping the feel light and slightly fluffy. Very sticky, lots of residual sugar.

On tap at George Keeley, NYC.
Pours an amber brown color with a creamy moussy head that displays good retention.
Aromas of cereal grain, honey caramel, toffee, molasses, fruity esters, almonds, figs, raisin and prune. There is also significant alcohol aroma, particularly, rum.
The taste is sweet and boozy with complex flavors. Notes of caramel, toffee, sweet cereal grain, honey, biscuity malt, molasses and brown sugar. Fruity esters and adjunct flavors evoke raisins, prune, figs and cherry. Alcohol spices yield notes of rum, bourbon and port wine. Well balanced by earthy hops that add more spice than bitterness.
Full bodied, robust, sweet and boozy. The finish is sticky and hot going down the throat.
A big beer that is bold and complex. Definitely a sipper. A good example of British Barleywine.

('Gun Hill Fort Ticonderoga' - on tap at Blind Tiger, served in an 8 oz bock-style glass)

Reddish-amber liquid, slight (chill) haze, thin rug of suds on pour... on the nose: dark crystal malts; stewed, spicy dried fruits; brandy-like booze... on the palate: rich, layered sugary malts and fruity esters; dessert-like character; the almond croissant and rum additions redolent in the mix; caramelly finish with mellow raisiny port wine tones... bit of a jelly-like bounce and chub to its body; mellow glow of booze in the finish, but no burn; near wort-y viscosity; made for small nips

sublime sipper; I was really hoping all the flavors were somehow malt/yeast derived, so it's a bit disappointing to discover all the flavor additions, but it was a fortunately-composed blend and brew... a shame I had to sort of rush through it (running late for a show), as I would've loved to have taken a good hour or two to savor it... would definitely have another!

EBF Last Saturday Dark amber in color with a thin head that dissipates quickly. Rum heat with lots of cherry and brown sugar. Warming alcohol sweet sipper.