Daleside Morocco Ale

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 8

500 ml bottle, from Voldby Købmandsgaard. ABV is 5.5%. Deep brown colour, large to moderate beige head. Unusual and interesting spicy and malty aroma, also notes of brown bread and caramel. The flavour is is also distinctly malty, medium sweet with some caramel, and a combination of exotic and "dusty" spices and hops that I’ve had in no other beer. More of a beer I’d like to have on a dark autumn night than on this hot summer’s day.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

Bottled. Really dark ruby colour, close to black. Mediumsized beige head. Aroma is ginger, vegetables and some mild sour fruits. Also some wooden and earthy notes are lurking once the beer has been poured for a while. Flavorur is spices (ginger and clove) along with some vegetables and quite much licorice. Quite much in it, but still it is quite watery to the palate.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Body of the beer is clear dark brown and ruby red when held up to light, thick rocky cap with great retention. Roasted malts, slight milk chocolate, ginger?!?!?!?!?!? Very interesting aroma I’m not sure I like but its different and complex. Flavour is very coffee filled and yet still sweet, what the fawk I can taste ginger wasn’t expecting that. Coffee and ginger is not a combo I enjoy. Underneath the coffee ginger there is a lot of roasted malt. Fell is smooth but slightly watery. Picking up a lot of dirt in the flavour. Flavour is complex and different but I’m not overly enjoying, this is still better then other ginger infused beers I’ve had. I guess it s tasty, I don’t know what to think I both like and hate it. The more I drink the more I enjoy, taste is staying the same but I find it more drinkable as the glass empties.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 7

This ale pours a dark brown color from a 50cl bottle. A medium sized beige foamy head. Aroma is caramel, ginger, fruity and sweet. A medium bodied spiced ale. Malts are caramel and sweet. Hops are earthy. The ginger flavors are very prominent in this beer and help balance the malt sweetness. Interesting. Mouthfeel is full. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly sweet.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Bottle courtesy of piscator34: Poured a deep burgundy color ale with a small foamy head with average retention. Aroma of strange spices with some roasted malt. Taste is best described as a spiced English porter/winter warmer with a medium bitter finish. I honestly have a hard time identifying the mix of spices included here but would say that it was quite enjoyable. Body is about average with medium to low carbonation. Interesting beer is doesn’t even start to describe this.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Wacky beer! Poured an average tan head that was a bit fizzy and a bit rocky, but it settled down after awhile and then remained on the rim only. For the ammount of head, the lacing is pretty good, really sticky, but spotty. Beer is a garnet colour with a brown side to it. Aroma is dominated by ginger (not pickled!), candy, herbs, spices and some malt, maybe a faint hint of chocolate...maybe. 75% or more of the ginger. Fresh smelling too. Taste is suprisingly good compared to other ginger flavoured beer that just make you retch. Although, there is enough ginger here to make my stomach take notice. Good ammount of spices blended in nicely. Background sweetness that fades and is replaced with a dry, tart bitterness. I thinking I've found cinnamon, but I'm not convinced. Mouthfeel is quite smooth. Nearing medium bodied. There is a bit of a hot sensation in my mouth that is overtaken by a long lasting spicy finish. I have noticed the alc too, but that's probally due to the total lack of sleep and nutrition. Now that I'm almost through the bottle, I think the ginger has caught up to me and I feel quite gross. Might just slam the rest to be rid of it. An excellent beer that I don't want to have again in the near future, but would share next time to avoid illness. Nothing anywhere near the St. Peters Ginger Stomach pump / near death experience.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

~ 500mL bottle, purchased in Laurel MD (yeah, during yet another business trip...), and sampled on a quiet Thursday evening in San Diego, CA.

I really wasn't sure what was up with this one, when it caught my eye at the liquor store. I knew it couldn't have been actually from Morocco, since it was definately of U.K. origin, packaging-wise. But hey, stuff like "Cobra Beer" (aka Krait) is an Indian-style lager, from a English company, and actually brewed and packaged in Poland, so you never really now, eh...?

But getting back on track, this is a spiced brown ale, with a rather interesting back-story -- much of it relating to how this beer's recipe was said to coincide with a dowery, that happened to include the entire city-state of Tangiers! (How's that for a wedding gift, eh?)

Anyway.... (I promise that's the last time I wander off-topic!), this is a pretty tasty beer, me'thinks. The spice gives what I suspect would be a decent-enough-on-it's-own Brown Ale a nice twist -- without the spices getting out of hand. Nothing I can't stand more than tasting a beer that tastes like chewing on the soggy remnants of some crazy hippy's herbal tea bag...! (Fresh Anchor O.S.A? You're on notice, dude...)

Looks nice, with a dull red glow working it's way through the generally brown body. Lots of complex lacing on top, with the head of foam behaving itself nicely.

Aroma-wise, the spices make their prescence known, but again, not in any sort of heavy-handed way. More welcoming than off-putting, I'd say.

Nicely balanced in the mouthfeel, and in the flavor profile. The spices seem to accent the hops, and vice versa (no, I'm not buying that is 100% hop-free, sorry). A warming sensation hitting the backend for a second or two, buy only long enough to intrigue the sense, before moving on down the hatch -- not ever-staying it's welcome, as it were.

This might get a little heavy in the long-run..., and I think that if it were a bit beefier in the ABV%, it'd fall into more along the lines of a Winter Warmer. In other words, I wouldn't personally stock your fridge with tons of this for a party. But for an occasional break from the norm, when it seems like you've seemingly had everything (and every style) ad nasaum..., this is surely worth a look-see. Recommended.

Music: King's-Evil's "Deletion Of Humanoise"
//TB

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 4 | Flavor: 5 | Overall: 5

Dark reddish brown, big tan head. Herbal aroma of bark, cardamon and ginger. Foresty flavour of bark, herbs, moss, ginder and spices with undertones of coffee. thin lifeless body. Short astringent finish of cumin and ginger.

Aroma: 0 | Appearance: 0 | Mouthfeel: 0 | Flavor: 0 | Overall: 0