Alexander Keith's Harvest Ale
Alexander Keith's

Found a bottle of this in my cellar! Lets see how it stacks up "a little" past its' prime....

A- Pours a clear coppery color, with hues of brown and red in the background. The head is about three fingers thick at first, eventually settling down to a solid layer of foam over the brew....it is a very nice caramel color itself. Lacing is solid, with a lot of clingy suds sticking to the side of my glass. It looks to have a modest amount of fine carbonation rising from the depths....a fine looking ale I'd say!

S- This has an overall rich aroma profile, with roasted malt, nuttiness, and sweet caramel or cooked brown sugar. The hop profile is subtle but that should be expected...sweet and deep....not something I'd expected from Keiths...

T- The flavors follow the aromas fairly well, but lack the depth of the aforementioned category. I do taste more of a coffee bean/chocolate and/or burnt almond type of flavor. The alcohol is well hidden and the finish is a blend of grassy/grainy kernels and slight leafy hopiness. Not overpowering in flavor but I do like the flavors of semi sweet nutty chocolate bar in there.

M- This is a light bodied beer with fine carbonation, as I suspected in the appearance....it's rather creamy for such a thin brew...I don't mind it at all, and think it is quite drinkable.

O- This was another one of those one offs that Keiths did that ended up being an above average beer! I wouldn't mind if they brewed this again, as I would most likely purchase it again....as an FYI, it actually holds up really well considering how long ago I bought this....it may have lost some of it's flavor flare but still it retains its' character. I give this one thumbs up!

 

 

The body is a deep mahogany brown with gorgeous ruby red highlights. Just over a finger of fluffy light tan head falls almost as fast has it rises. No lace is left behind.

First impressions are copper in old penny form and wet dog. I poured the beer into a different glass to make sure it wasn't dirty glassware and I got the same thing. Lightly toasted malts, caramel, and hazelnut manage to rise through this musty, metallic mess but are far from being able to save it.

A musty/watery impression is left from beginning to end but isn't as bad as I had expected. Roasty and dry towards the finish. Notes of hazelnut slide across the tongue and move to the back of the palate with its sweetness fading along the way. A subtle drying metallic character encases the beer.

Light to medium bodied with a crisp level of carbonation. Somewhat watery but the body still carries some weight.

Keith's has never been a stand out brewery for me but I thought they would have put in a bit more effort in a limited edition brew such as this. I drain poured the rest as soon as I finished the review. Below average and not for me.

A tasty treat left behind after our open house...

A - Pours a nice copper colour with a nice red hue, finger of head with little retention and no lacing.

S - Leafy hops, grassy notes, wheat, and a sweet caramel scent that muddled by musty notes.

T - Much like the nose with the grassy and leafy hop notes coming through, the caramel and toffee notes linger alongside some buttered bread and sweet corn. For a brown ale the flavours are a tad mild, but certainly tasty nonetheless.

M - Medium bodied, smooth and finishes wet.

O - There's nothing spectacular about this brew, but it's certainly much more flavourful than many of their flagship offerings. I would opt for a pint of this among a selection of macro ales, though for a brown ale, it could still use a flavour boost.

 

 

473ml can poured into a white wine glass · fridge temp · August 3rd, 2011

Appearance: Pours a dark mahogany with a slick 3" ivory head. Good retention and some spiraling lace remains.

Smell: More of a hop presence in the nose than malts. Clean caramel malts are faint, as are some almond and buttery aromas.

Taste: A solid brown ale taste, though there aren't a lot of powerful flavors. Caramel, some nougat, perhaps toffee. Ample bitterness ties the beer together in harmony.

Mouthfeel: Crisp, bitter and rather dry for a brown. Some alcohol lingers in the mouth and throat.

Overall: This is a solid example, but doesn't take it's game to the next level. I feel like the complexity needs to be turned up on this one. However, it could easily be a session beer for many palates.

341ml bottle poured into pint glass 2/11/11

A clear reddish brown with a fair amount of bubbles but only a cola like fizzy head that leaves no lace

S faint hops with a little nutty brown sugar

T some caramel replaces the brown sugar and the rest mimics the nose

M fairly light and well carbonated, the aftertaste lingers with a nutty finish

O I was surprised by this one because it's decent and says Alexander Keiths on the label

Wow a beer from these guys that makes an attempt to mimic the style it claims to be. Great for Keiths but that still leaves it pretty average compared to the norm

A pint at the Druid in downtown Edmonton.

This beer appears a clear, dark reddish brown colour, with one finger of creamy pale beige head, which leaves a craggy wash of painted lace around the glass as it sinks away. It smells of mildly sweet caramel malt, a bit of vanilla, and earthy, somewhat flinty, and increasingly weedy, hops. The taste is bready, biscuity malt, some mild nuttiness, a bit of edgy orchard fruit, and earthy hops. The carbonation is average, the body on the light side, weight-wise, a tad clingy in a fruity way, and a decent stone's throw from smooth. It finishes mostly dry, the fruitiness abetting the grain in this little escapade.

As with the majority of their brewmasters series, this is a huge step up from the usual Keiths' dreck. Still, in their attempt to go legit, they could yet learn a whole lot from the likes of Muskoka, in the Canadian Harvest Ale run-off.

Appearance- Copper and slightly opaque with thin head.

Smell- Hints of toffee and slight hint of vanilla.

Taste- Toffee flavour comes through and makes the beer more enjoyable.

Mouthfeel- Light bodied ale with very easy drinkability and is smooth at the end.

Overall- A good attempt for Alexander Keith's. Its good to see them branching out to produce other types of ales. Interested in seeing what they come up with next.

Undated bottle "won" at a homebrewing meeting, poured into a beer mug at 4C.

A: Reddish brown with a light fizzy head that disappeared before I had an opportunity to even contemplate it.
S: Sweet caramel, corn, cooked canned veggies
T: A moderately sweet body evidenced by some adjunct I would choose to be corn, with caramel notes. Hints of earthy hops. Light roasted note perceived at times.
M: Finishes clean, with some sweetness on the tongue.
O: If this is an ale, there is very little ale character in there . Clearly a BMC macro trying to be 'craft' in order to get the tweeners. Keith's IPA : IPA :: Keith's Harvest Ale : Oktoberfest

Now simply known as "Nova Scotia Brown Ale".

Pours a burgundy color into my glass with a decent one-finger head. It could pass for a shade of brown.

Sweet with a hint of molasses and chocolate in the nose. Still very "off" for the style.

More of that residual sweetness here. Again, it isn't very appealing to the senses. Molasses is all I get from this.

Still very sweet at the back of the throat.

Again, another middle-of-the-road release. I can't see anything good about it.

Appearance: It has a nice dark brown colour. It has a nice thick off-white/creamy head that dies down moderatly and lacing is present.

Smell: The aromas definitly give out hints of roasted and chocolate malts, hops, and a caramely sweetness.

Taste: Like the aromas, it has a a nice caramely/malty sweetness but ends with more of a slight bitterness.

Mouthfeel: It's a nice medium carbonated beer with a sweetness to it.

Drinkability: It's a very drinkable beer accompanied with good flavours. Definitely Keitht's best!!!

Never thought a Labatt product would be my 300th review, but what the hell! Imperial pint at The Black Shire Pub. Pours dark brown with ruby highlights and a thin off-white head that retains quite well. Some dots of lacing stick to the pint glass. Smell and taste are mildly earthy and floral hops, roasted and chocolate malts, some caramel sweetness, biscuit, slight nuttiness, and a metallic hop bitterness that somehow manages to be enjoyable. Mouthfeel is creamy, medium, delicate and foamy carbonation, bitter astringency to end. Not bad at all. My friend and I both thought this tasted like a dunkel with more hop aroma and flavour than any other Canadian macro, save 50 perhaps. At the same time, though, this Harvest Ale is merely average if you compare it to the better micro brown ales (Rogue, Black Oak, Brooklyn), and one pint was enough for me.

I can't help but be skeptical of any Keith's product. They make bad versions of an IPA, amber ale, wheat beer and stout (later renamed "dark"). I saw this on tap at The Pour House in Toronto and figured I had to try it. I classified this as an American Brown Ale because Keith's website describes this as a brown ale made with North American hops.

Pours a deep brown colour with thin head. Nice head retention and lacing down the glass. Smells of sweet caramel, toasted malt and some mild hops. Actually, I'm surprised I can smell hops in a Keith's product. Flavour is more sweet than bitter. You'd typically expect something hoppier from a harvest ale, but if you think of this as a brown ale, it is a nice one. Carbonation level was pretty good. I didn't really have an urge to order a second pint, but I had no issue getting through my first one. Clearly the best product I've had from Keith's.