I picked up a bottle of this as well as one of the fancy-pants 2007 scotch barrel aged version at Great Spirits a couple weeks ago. Old ales are fast becoming one of my favorite styles of beer, and this one does not disappoint.
I decanted this one into a Corsendonk tulip glass. The beer pours an inky black with a modest ebony head. There's not much carbonation to speak of, but that's not particularly unusual for an old ale. The beer has a very strong aroma; I'm getting a lot of burnt malts, chocolate, and maybe a pinch of espresso beans.
Dear god, this beer is tasty. The flavor is just as strong as the aroma. The flavor of burnt chocolate and roasted malts is intense and lingers on the palette pleasantly long after the beer itself is gone. The beer has an extremely full mouthfeel, extremely rich.
This beer goes down easily. Very drinkable, and at only around 6% alcohol by volume, a decent session beer, if you can afford to have more than a couple anyways. That brings me to price. This one goes for about $3.99 for a twelve ounce bottle, so it's not only rich in flavor. Beers like this one are an investment, they can be a bit pricey, and risky if you're not sure exactly what you are getting in to. This particular investment paid off.
I can't wait to try the 2007 one. Maybe that will be my graduation present to myself.
Rating: A-
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