Aggie Ale
Olds College Teaching Brewery

Aggie Ale is crystal clear and a deep amber in color. The head is rocky, cream colored, and lasting.

The aroma gies me up front caramel and nuttiness combined with toasted bread. Hints of fruit esters come through in the center. This is where I smell something that reminds me ripe cherries and peaches. A quick whiff of yeast brings me to a gentle, hoppy finish.

On the tongue, Aggie Ale is medium bodied and pleasantly smooth. The first thing I taste is caramel. Fruit esters are more prominent here than they were in the aroma. Again, fruit esters give me flaors of ripe stone fruits and berries. Slightly grainy flavors of malt help carry these flavors, giving the whole thing backbone. The finish is crisp and hoppy.

It's a very respectable example of an amber ale. The mouthfeel is smooth and slick. Flavors are gentle and balanced, yet present enough to give the beer a decent sense of itself. Tasty and easy to drink, worth visiting again.

 

 

 

 

 

Appearance - Pours a copper colour with two fingers of creamy tan head.

Smell - bready caramalts, leafy and earthy hops, nutty aromas.

Taste - Well balanced flavours of bready caramel malts and nuttiness, with the bitterness from the earthy/leafy hops showing up at the end.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Finishes with the sweetness from caramel and nuts and lingering hop bitterness.

Overall - Another fine offering from Olds College. Traditional amber ale flavours are present, showcasing the malts that the community is incredibly proud of producing over many generations.

16oz glass at the Underground - been tryin' to get a bead on this one for a while now - such an appropriate moniker for an offering from any sort of rural Alberta brewing concern, eh?

This beer appears a clear, dark ruby amber colour, with one fat finger of puffy, loosely foamy, and a tad chunky ecru head, which leaves some solid snow rime lace around the glass as it more or less quickly blows off.

It smells of bready and nutty caramel malt, a further bit of nougaty sweetness, some mild hard water flintiness, watery dark orchard fruit, pithy nuts, a suggestion of wet ashiness, and tame earthy, citrusy, and leafy hops. The taste is semi-sweet grainy and biscuity caramel malt, weak orange, lemon, and white grapefruit rind, oily bar-top nuts, wet stones after the latest rainstorm, understated black fruity notes, and more plain leafy, weedy, and floral hoppiness.

The carbonation is fairly laid-back in its softly nurturing frothiness, the body a sturdy enough middleweight, and generally smooth, only a very slight clamminess evolving as things warm up. It finishes off-dry, the biscuity malt lingering, but essentially losing its crisp edge in the process.

Overall, a pleasantly elevated example of a typically underwhelming style in these particular environs - lots of flavour abounding here, of the sort that encourages one to immediately come back for more. And not just for the local college binge-drinking yahoos (lots of love, I used to be one)!

This is a very solid amber ale. It pours with about half an inch of tawny foam that leaves mutant rings of lacing as the beer heads south. It has a lovely hop/yeast/caramel malt nose. The flavour is a wonderful combination of toasted caramel malt and citrusy hops, with an extremely dry finish. Aggie Ale befits the place it is brewed and is definitely worth a repeat tasting!