“Touted as a Toffee Apple Amber Ale, barrel aged in calvados Moon Dog have set about recreating that tooth-rotting, appley-underneath treat of shows and childhood. The result; an imperial amber ale with lots of toffee and a surprisingly firm bitterness.”
Here we have another strange and quirky looking beer to add to Moon Dog’s already extremely edgy repertoire.
Served in a shaker glass the murky, dark amber pour produced a light filmy head that retains well. OK lacing. The aroma showcases the feature toffee apple really well with lovely sticky, sugary notes. Apart from the obvious tart apple it’s accompanied by wafts of caramel, spice, oak, booze, tropical fruits, syrup and toffee. Mild-medium carbonation with a slick, oily mouth feel. Again, very complex flavours. The alcohol (8.2% ABV) is quite well pronounced throughout with a fusion of mildly assertive hop dryness upon entry. A mixed bag of toffee apples and fruit esters through the mid-palate finishes grainy with hints of cognac and oak on the back end. Probably a lot more we missed, but damn! We love the creative brewing styles these guys produce. Risky, but they pull it off every time. Great stuff.