Old Skhool
Olds College Teaching Brewery

 

Tastes and feels more like a porter but is delicious none the less.

355ml can poured into tulip.

Pours a dark brown-red with pretty ruby highlights with half a finger of light brown head that leaves rocky sheets of lace as it recedes.

Smells of rich roasted caramel malt, nutty bread crust, cold coffee, dark chocolate and soft hops.

Tastes of more roasted caramel malt and cold coffee, mild bitter nutty chocolate and more mild hops.

Feels smooth and fuzzy. Medium bodied with mild carbonation. Finishes off-dry.

Verdict: Recommended. Big flavour and easy to drink.

1L howler from the vast array of taps at the Capilano Liquor Depot in Edmonton. Nice to see this student brewery's commercial offerings showing up in more and more places around the province.

This beer pours a clear, very dark reddish brown colour, with three chubby fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and mostly bubbly tan head, which leaves some stellar pockmarked concrete wall lace around the glass as it slowly sinks away.

It smells of toasted, crackery caramel malt, roasted nuts, brown bread, bittersweet cocoa powder, a hint of day-old coffee, and earthy, weedy, and mildly leafy hops. The taste is semi-sweet bready and grainy caramel malt, gritty medium chocolate, oily, and less charred nuts, subtle cafe-au-lait notes, a sort of isolated wet ashiness, and more plain leafy, earthy, and faintly straw-like hop bitterness.

The carbonation is fairly understated in its low-key and hard to really hone in on frothiness, the body a decent middleweight, and generally smooth, the various burnt essences kind of taking a nick out of things here. It finishes off-dry, the cocoa, caramel, and nuttiness all persisting well, tied together by that roasty common bond.

Yeah, this is indeed a sort of blend between an old school (sure, I said it) English porter, and northern brown ale. Since those two styles share more than a few things in common, the result here is a new world take, filtered through the lenses of budding brewers, no less. Nice and toasty, full-flavoured, and pretty easy to drink, especially as the warmth of a sunny September day fades into a nippy evening.

Appearance - Pours a dark nut brown with a finger of bubbly beige head.

Smell - toasted malts, caramel, nuttiness, hint of coffee bean, earthy and leafy hops.

Taste - Toasted malts start this brew off followed by the caramel and nuttiness. Earthy and leafy hops follow suit alongside a hint of coffee bean.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied with light to moderate carbonation. Finishes with a pleasant lingering bitterness from the coffee bean alongside the nuttiness.

Overall - A good example of this style. The malts and coffee are showcased quite well with the earthy and leafy hops acting as a supporting cast. A true winner and one to explore if you have not had the chance to do so.

This is a lovely brown ale. It pours with minimal head that quickly to the edges of the glass. The nose is nutty, with chocolate and toffee notes. A bit thin on mouthfeel, but the flavour is quite pleasant. Caramel malt, chocolate and faint coffee strains make Old Skhool "on par" for the style. If you haven't taken time to sample the brews that come from this teaching facility, I strongly encourage you to do so. It's the ultimate in "drinking local" and supporting the expansion of the craft beer industry in Alberta.

 

Poured from a 341ml bottle. dark reddish brown, light still gets through though. Small head, that disappears quickly, with no lacing. Smells of burnt malts and black coffee. Taste is pretty much the same as the smell. A little thin on the mouth feel. The best porter in Alberta I think. My bottle says "Old Skhool Porter"