Holiday Vintage Old Ale
Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant

 

 

 

Bottle courtesy of Bobby. Thanks for sharing.

A: This beer pours amber, maybe copper, in color with a surprisingly large khaki colored head.

S: Toffee, molasses, and brown sugar on the nose, making up most of the bouquet. A pretty decent dark fruit character, with raisins and plums, and definitely a strong alcohol aroma. A bit of toasted bread is there as well. Not bad, but the aromas are all kind of "flat" and boring.

T: Sweet is mostly how the beer tastes. There is not a big emphasis on the heavy caramel flavors that I expect from an old ale. Some decent bread and brown sugar flavor, maybe some minimal fruit notes.

M: The body is medium with a medium carbonation.

D: This was a decent enough of beer, but sort of boring and one note. Not the rich and deep flavors I associate with an old ale.

A: poured a translucent amber brown in color with brown highlights and had a thin bubbly head leaving a little lacing sticking to the glass.

S: had lots of caramel in the aroma with dark fruits, lots of sweetness from the malts, candi sugar and brown sugar,

T: the caramel and dark fruits were more apparent on the taste with bozze coming thorugh but had brown sugar, apple, and cinnamon accents.

M: the brew was medium in body with a low amount of carbonation which had a sweet, mild fruity, spice, and sticky finish.

D: drank pretty good and was a decent interpretation of an old ale, definitely cool trying more offerings from iron hill.

Thanks to Tim S for this one. 2007 vintage...
Appears a dark crimson mahogany with a with a beige head that slowly fades into a mild cap. Scattered streaks are left around the glass.
Smell is of cherries, caramel, wood, toffee, and concord grapes.
Taste is of the mentioned aromas with a fruitiness of black cherries shining through with wine and yeast.
Mouthfeel is full bodied, syrupy, sugary, and fruity.

Biergotter Brewclub brewday tasting extravaganza, DrJay lugged this one up from PA!

Pours a slightly hazy copper brown, thin off white head forms, settles down to a nice ring leaving some decent lace. Smell is nice, very fruity, toffee, chocolate, some alchohol, strawberries, very rich aroma, quite nice. Taste is toffee and bread, lots of fruits, strawberry in particular, bit of alcohol, biscuits, hint of chocolate, nice finish. Mouthfeel is medium to full bodied with low to medium carbonation, smooth and drinkable, serviceable old ale! Thanks Jay.

2002 vintage. We shared this one at the Biergotter club brewday.
It poured a clear, medium amber colour with a short, yet solid beige cap. Head retention was really good and there was some sticky lacing. The aroma was heavy with dried fruit, mostly raisin and fig, plus warm caramel and toffee. Very fruity aroma, actually. Bitterness was on the mild side, not surprising for a beer that's been aging this long, and the flavour was quite fruity, with dried fruits and toffee up front. It had a mouthwatering mellow maltiness and caramel character with a hint of chocolate towards the end. Medium to full bodied with fine, well-integrated carbonation and very mild warmth. This stuff has held up wonderfully. It's definitely mellow, but still full of flavour.