Liquor Mart 40th Anniversary Ale

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 6

A vigorous pour produces an almost four-finger thick, light tan colored head in my 25cl tulip glass. The beer is a deep red tinged, amber color that shows a brilliantly clear dark red-copper color when held up to the light. The aroma smells fruity without being overly sweet and it also has a significant spiciness that gets a bit musty at some point. This has some phenolic clove notes to as well as herbal, pine-like and citrus oil hop aromatics. Almost has a touch of tobacco to it as well as some lemon pepper, citrus zest, and something that smells a bit like cough-syrup. This takes on a bit of an herbal character after a bit that seems to thin out and make the aroma not nearly as interesting as it was initially.

Spicy, peppery and with a bit of warming, higher alcohols to it. This is fairly light bodied, and the carbonation also contributes a bit too this. This finishes with some phenolic notes that taste lightly of plastic as well as a solid hop bitterness. In the middle there is some fruity, malt sweetness that accentuates a grapefruit, orange zest and Meyer lemon peel citrus character that mixes in quite a bit with the spicy components found in this beer. Other flavors of ginger, black pepper, a touch of curing plastic and perhaps some cider like notes. This actually has a fairly significant vegetal note to it in both the flavor and aroma (sort of like mix of cooked cabbage and celery), that isn't really positive, but not horrible either.

Not bad, but not as interesting as I would like in a characterful, hoppy Belgian Pale Ale.