Banko Palm Sugar Ale
Three Magnets Brewing

 

 

2016-08-06
22oz bottle split between a pair of snifters at Three Magnets. Bottle is dated 6/28/16.

Pours a hazy coppery amber with a small head and almost no carbonation. Smell is malty, biscuit dough, slight molasses hint. Definitely some coffee, since I know it should be there. Not sure what I would think it was otherwise.

Taste is strangely dissimilar from the aroma. Toffee is huge. A little yeasty.

Mouthfeel is light and smooth. Overall, interesting and enjoyable.

 

Pour is a murky dark amber with an impressive finger of tan head. Good lacing.

Nose brings no surprises but plenty of anticipation. Makes me think of cane sugar and cream and some malts that I can't pin down. Almost wee heavy-esque? The coffee does not jump out at me, but when I look even lightly for it, it is a pure chocolatey coffee bean.

Flavour comes forth with an interestingly clean initial approach. The first really distinguishable FLAVOUR is probably the coffee coming steaming in right behind what is almost just a faceless creamy ramp up. Upon warming the coffee actually becomes less singular and pronounced and helps to support a cast including vanilla bean molasses and that note that I malty note I allude to earlier but can't quite adequately describe or pin down. It always makes me think of the word 'stale' but I don't mean the negative connotations that go along with that descriptor. Some lactic bittering and bring down and then another piece I can't completely narrow down, but that brings a decent british-y bittering to the finish.

Somehow deceptively creamy, but lively and ends with an assuredly bitter finish. Unlike anything else I've had recently, and as such interesting. I fall ultimately on the side of enjoying it.

Hazy amber brew with a brownish cast. Plenty of foam and spritzy on the tongue. Not much aroma. Distinct coffee taste, but it's unlike any I've had before. It's slightly sweet with a touch of burnt sugar.

I don't get how this is a cream ale, but I guess you can put coffee in any light beer and call it what you want. To me it tastes like an English Old Ale, but maybe that's because the coffee adds that slightly acidic and musty taste. Or else it's the base "palm sugar ale" with something like a touch of molasses.

From the 22 oz bottle purchased at Elizabeth Station in Bellingham.

 

 

Poured into a Seattle Beer Week pint glass. Pours a hazy, medium to dark caramel amber with a half finger light khaki head with great retention and thick lacing. Aroma of lightly caramel biscuit malt and creamy coffee with a hint of vanilla. Flavor is mellow biscuit malt, coffee, hints of citrus and lactose, mildly sweet. Medium bodied with a pleasant creaminess that is expected from this style. Take two things that are not exactly my styles: cream ale and coffee in lighter malt ale, and apparently you end up with something off-beat and pretty darn good. I'm baffled by what the malt body here actually tastes like, but it seems to be lightly biscuit and slightly more robust than I'd expect from the style, yet is fairly neutral in flavor. It supports the light coffee flavors well. The finish is a little on the thin side, but bitter coffee flavors are revealed that keep things interesting. The name on this is quite apt; although the color is way darker than expected for the style, due to the coffee no doubt, the base beer is a nice, mildly sweet cream ale that lets the coffee flavor shine, although the coffee use is restrained. I like this quite a bit. Looks amazing.