D. O. Ale
Old Yale Brewing Co.

I must admit, I'm a sucker for puns, beer, music and Canadiana. When they are all lumped together into one package, it's game over for me. DO Ale is a brilliant package, and it is a very tasty brown ale. It pours with a long-lasting, creamy head that leaves beautiful lacing behind. There is plenty of nuts and chocolate in the smell. The flavour itself is a robust chocolate malt with coffee highlights. There is a faint, but very enjoyable hop twist to the finish. I can imagine myself at a DOA concert, pounding this brew out of a plastic glass, yelling "I f*^$ing love this song!" at the top of my lungs. To learn a bit more about this beer's story, check out this link - http://music.cbc.ca/#!/blogs/2013/5/DOAle-is-here-Joe-Keithley-on-his-bands-beer-soaked-history

 

 

 

Appearance - Pours a chestnut brown with two fingers of frothy off-white head.

Smell - Caramel and roasted malts, light earthy hops, bit of fruity esters and nuttiness.

Taste - Toasted and roasted malts, along with the light sweetness of caramel, light earthy hops and a mellow nuttiness. Finishes with roasted malt bitterness.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied with moderate carbonation.

Overall - A spot on brown ale by Old Yale that delivers on all fronts.

650ml bottle I've been saving since it was released early this summer. I'm expecting to like this one, although I've never had anything from this brewery before.

A: Dark, garnet when held to the light. A couple fingers of caramel-coloured head, dissipates fairly quickly leaving lacing around the rim of the glass.
S: Caramel, dark malty sweetness. Chocolate, coffee, candy.
T: Beautiful. Dark and rich flavours, some graininess. Just the right amount of sweetness and bitterness.
F: a bit light, smooth.

Too bad it's a limited release! This is a great beer that I would gladly drink again and again.

(Not sure what it has to do with D.O.A., really, though. Do D.O.A. and brown ale go together? I certainly wouldn't expect a beer this good at a punk show!)

 

From a 650 ml brown bottle. Pours out a deep brown hue that brightens up with garnet highlights when held to direct light. Tall tight spongy light beige head that slowly settles to a thick cap.

Sweet caramel and chocolate malt on the nose, quickly overcome with bright fruity berry-like esters. The esters fade in time while the malt gains prominence.

Toasty, nutty malt up front in the flavour, some dry chocolate wafer, underlying caramel sweetness, accompanied most of the way with musty herbal hops, and finishing on that note.

On the thicker end of medium-bodied, the texture would completely get away with being velvety smooth however the assertive carbonation maintains an impressive balance in this area.

Browns used to be my favourite style way back in the day and it seems that too many breweries just phone it in when it comes to them. This is one of the most enjoyable ones I've had in quite some time, and a salute to the hop content that plays nicely and adds to the overall flavour profile. Great tribute to a great Canadian band as well!

650ml bottle. Part of a series (?) promoted by cbcmusic.ca, combining craft brewers and musicians, apparently fueled by puns (a quiet yay!). This must be the suburban Vancouver stop, an ode to venerable punk rockers D.O.A..

This beer pours a quite dark, red-brick brown colour, with three fingers of puffy, bulbous, and fairly creamy pale beige head, which leaves a nice array of tiered marauding spaceship lace around the glass as things are slowly brought down.

It smells of semi-sweet biscuity caramel malt, dark syrupy sugar, a separate toasted graininess, a hint of anise, a bit of nutty chocolate, and earthy, leafy hops. The taste is somewhat gritty, toasted grainy caramel malt, with a touch of dry toffee, cold cafe-au-lait, musty molasses, and herbal, leafy hops.

The bubbles are quite tame and innocuous, the body medium-light in weight, and actually fairly smooth, nothing out of the ordinary happening here, so move along, kids. It finishes off-dry, the biscuity, now prominently nutty malt running the table, mesmerizing the audience, whatevs, with little heckling evident from the lingering herbal hops.

A decent brown ale, nothing that too out there, or anything that might scare off yer working-class plebes. That of course presupposes that they're ale drinkers, which is a dicey assertion in the land that Molson and Labatt built (one wonders what those guys' musical connections might be in this conceit...). Maybe Joey Shithead would slam back this stuff with me, maybe he wouldn't, but I'm not begrudging Old Yale's efforts here at all, as this is drinkable enough without all the Canadian Content vibe I'm getting from this.

 

A: Pours a clear brown with a thin head. Head renewed with each taste.
S: Just a slight caramel.
T: Nice taste of roasted malt.
M: Clean finish with just a slight lingering bitterness.
O: A very nice example of the style. At only 5.0 ABV, would make a fine session beer for a fall afternoon.

 

A: dark brown with hints of amber/orange; translucent
S: black liquorice, malty, toffee (Nutella?)
T: very nice broad rich taste finishing in a nice balanced ball of dark toffee malt; good line of bitterness keeping it all in check
M: medium-full bodied
O: very enjoyable and one that i'd definitely buy again.

 

Tribute to legendary Vancouver punk band D.O.A.

Appearance. Pours a deep brown with a little amber and topped with a finger of thick, creamy off-white head.

Smell. Sweet caramel, molasses and honey, some lightly toasted darker malts, and a little bit of earthy-floral hops.

Taste. Sweet toasted malts, honey and brown sugar, nutty and lightly smokey. A bit of earthy bitter hops in the finish.

Mouthfeel. Medium body, medium-low carbonation.

Overall. Nothing terrible about this beer, just not very exciting. A tribute to a band like this should be a little more ...bold, imo anyways.