Resolutions 2018
Bent Stick Brewing Co.

330ml bottle - no indication as to how this differs from last year's Resolutions, other than the package size.

This beer pours a murky, dark orange-brick amber colour, with a near-teeming tower of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly tan head, which leaves some decent aggressive sea spray lace around the glass as it slowly but surely sinks away.

It smells of semi-sweet, grainy and bready caramel malt, some sugary apple and pear fruitiness, a minor under the basement stairs musty essence, and fairly tame earthy, leafy, and floral green hop bitters. The taste is big bready and pastry-adjacent caramel malt, a bit of biscuity toffee, muddled domestic table fruit, some musty yeastiness, and more leafy, grassy, and gently soused-up floral verdant hoppiness.

The carbonation is fairly active in its swirling and twirling frothiness, the body a solid medium-heavy weight, and rather smooth, with a nice basic creaminess seeping in as things warm up a smidgen around here. It finishes off-dry, the big malt dealing with only a soupcon of lingering alcohol as a counterpoint.

Overall - once again with a beer style that possesses both an American and English interpretation, yet is made by Canadians, the end result falls somewhere in the middle. This is indeed hoppy, but not in the brash manner common south of the border, and it generally lacks that estery thing in versions from Cool Britannia. At any rate, this is very good, and worthy of sipping on as one contemplates the New Year to come.