Legend Extra Old Ale
Apex Brewing

650 ml bottle from brewery in Edson courtesy of my son as a 3 way share.
Pours a hazy orange amber with finger of frothy short lived off white head.
Aroma of toffee, sherry, fruit cake, dark fruits and a general earthy hop note.
Taste follows with caramel malt, toffee, sherry note, dark fruit and again an earthy flavour.
Medium full mouthfeel with a caramel sweetness underlying a slightly earthy floral hop bitterness on low end moderate carbonation. Overall a really decent beer worth trying at a certain price point.....

 

I hummed and hawed about shelling out $25 for this, but it magically appeared in my local bottle shop’s 6 pack of the month. I waited until the “do not drink until” date and, well, let’s start with the good. The Red Shed malt is a big player in this concoction, which is a good thing. I found this beer to be quite dry, again a good thing. Finally, the 11.8 ABV is well hidden in the flavor layers. More than anything, it seems young for an extra old ale. The spice and fruit cake promised on the tasting notes didn’t push themselves forward. Some time on the shelf would probably do it a World of good.

650ml bottle. A brew that commemorates a 100-year old ghost town called Legend, southeast of Lethbridge. The label, a la Stone, advises us to 'Enjoy After Dec 24, 2017', so following the letter of the law, here we go.

This beer pours a hazy, medium apricot amber colour, with four fingers of puffy, finely foamy, and mildly bubbly ecru head, which leaves some stellar broadly webbed lace around the glass as it slowly but surely sinks away.

It smells of semi-sweet, bready and pastry-forward caramel malt, muddled dark stone fruit, vanilla cookies, a hint of under the basement stairs mustiness, and some very plain earthy, weedy, and perfumed floral green hop bitters. The taste is grainy and doughy caramel malt, real vanilla, some baked apple and pear fruitiness, further minor earthy and musty notes, and more understated leafy, herbal, and floral hoppiness.

The carbonation is fairly laid-back in its insouciant frothiness, the body a decent middleweight, and generally smooth, with a teensy airy creaminess seeping in once things warm up a tad around here. It finishes off-dry, the caramel and vanilla essences still large and definitely in charge.

Overall - this is a rather well-made version of the style, even if the 'old' quotient isn't quite settled in or developed yet (I am drinking it at the earliest recommended time, but hey, it's freaking Christmas, already!). At any rate, tasty, and a pleasant simulacrum of all those past holiday confections that no longer play a part in my particular manner of celebrating at the moment.