Goosinator - Smoked
Left Hand Brewing Company

Bottle 0.75 L. (2011)
Dark brown body with a small, frothy, light-brown head, mostly diminishing with a fair lacing.
Heavy malty aroma (toasted, burnt, caramel) with notes of smoke, cherry and an evident alcoholic character.
Intense sweet flavour with some faint bitter note appearing anly in the finish.
Medium body with an oily texture; soft carbonation; intense alcoholic feeling in the finish.

Bottle, RBNAG 2009 in Vatlandsvåg. Cognac-coloured beer, minimal head. Aroma of smoked sausage. Lots of smoke in the flavour too, dominates completely. Not my kind of beer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Transcribed from old session notes.

AGED REVIEW
This one has been lost in the back of the basement cellar for four years.

Surprisingly, it's still quite drinkable, and even maintains a vigorous smokey bacon presence in both the aroma and flavor after all this time. At this time the balance between malt sweetness and smokey presence reminds me of some of my favorite BBQ sauces, and there is certainly nothing undesirable about that. Also, it seems less salty than most other smoked beers that I have had. The malts are only partially oxidized, I estimate about a 3 out of every 10 'parts' ratio blend of cardboard to caramel, certainly nowhere near bad enough to be drainpoured. Oh yes, and it's gone dead flat, but I can't really blame it for that. It does still have a lovely hazed amber color to it, but the carbonation has been completely shot by the accidental over-cellaring. Texturally, it suffers from the loss of carbonation, it has become rather stodgy and sluggish on the tongue...but not so bad that I would dare to label it as 'syrupy' quite yet.

So, this beer seems to deserve (IMO) to join the Alaskan Smoked Porter in that small category of "exceptions to the rule against cellaring smoked beers". Even though I accidentally overdid it... It held up unusually well over time.

Smell Pretty smokey but with some chocolate and fruity aromas mixed in.

Look This beer is dark carmel in color transparent in the light. light cream colored head with very little lacing.

Taste Definitely a lot of smoked malts in this brew. very smokey at first with hints of vanilla in the back of the mouth. A little bit of an alcohol taste with everything but not overwhelming.

Mouthfeel just the right amount of carbonation a good dark lager but pretty light and smooth

Overall Great beer. I had the regular Goosinator previously and this is a very good variation. I would buy this again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bottle from 2007 thanks to Jeff.

The pour is a dark amber color with a finger or so of khaki colored head. There's a pleasant smokiness to the aroma, almost like smoked almonds. A touch of sweet toffee malt, maybe some a hint of chocolate. Toasted malt is also present. Tastes decently smokey, but there is a really nice sweetness and nuttiness to it. A little bit of salt in the background. Medium body with medium carbonation.