Odell Woodcut Oak Aged Golden Ale No. 02

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 9

pours a deep golden color, with a fantastic sticky lacing head .. . smell is of fresh super sticky oak and honey, with a dash of super smooth golden rum .. . sprinkles! .. . quite alot of toffee and oak in the taste, nice sweetness level.. . 6 months has done nicely, pretty much there .. . i liked this brew alot, #1 was more complex and wood defined, but this is world class! .. . keep it going Odell, these are your best beers!

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Sampled 1702, Tucson AZ; August 2009
A careful pour of this beer produces a wispy pale, light tan colored head that sits on top of a clear, amber-copper colored beer. The aroma has lots of buttery oak character, spicy wood notes, toasted oak components and even a touch of toasty malt character in the finish. The oak is definitely the dominant note in the aroma as there is only a hint of malt character from the base beer evident. Still the aroma is nice overall and the oak character is fairly well balanced and not really overwhelming.

This tastes spicy up front, but it has lots of sweetness that easily balances the beer out and it even has a touch of an orange zest flavor to it. A biting, slightly astringent oak character is found in the finish, and is joined by a bit of warming, almost hot alcohol notes that don’t get overdone. The flavor is much better balanced than the nose is, and actually this is much more balanced over all than Woodcut #1 was. Light buttery oak flavors are joined by a solid vanillin character; both of these really play together well here and make this beer quite enjoyable. There is a nice oak bite in the finish, but what really ties this beer together is the soft, supporting malt character; it supplies a sweet clean malt character as well as a cracker like malt notes and the body is just textured enough to mellow and easily carry all the fresh oak flavors that are present.

As the beer warms up it becomes even more balanced; the vanillin gets bigger than the buttery oak component over time. This is very nice, very well integrated and it is much more enjoyable than I was expecting based upon the first one of the series. Man, I definitely want more, but that $25 price tag definitely hurts.

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

750ml bottle - number 3155, dated 4/20/09. Pours a hazy golden copper with a small white head that goes to a thin film that leaves some lacing.

The aroma is sweet caramel, toffee and molasses with some dark fruits and wood and a little alcoholic bitterness.

The flavor is sweet sugary malts, some fruitcake spices, fruits, and a decent amount of alcoholic bitterness in the finish. The mouthfeel is medium bodied and slightly watery.

Overall, a very nice warming beer that's surprisingly well balanced despite being slightly sharp on the alcohol and a little on the sweet side. Reminiscent of a good English barley wine. I like it.