Invisible Force Over Ale - Half Acre Beer Company

MasterSki

Illinois

4.1/5  rDev +5.7%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Hand-pump at Fountainhead. Served in a pint glass.

A - Creamy persistent light tan foam that leaves behind plenty of splotchy lacework. Murky dark brown body, with some light orange-brown shades at the edges of the glass.

S - Massive espresso. There's a touch of milk chocolate and nutty malts in the periphery, but this is pretty much all coffee. Thankfully, the coffee is intensely enjoyable.

T - The flavor isn't as coffee dominant, although those flavors are still quite intense. More chocolate malt and fruity ale yeast flavors find their way into the mix before yielding to a palate-bruising espresso bitterness in the finish.

M - Creamy, medium body, but slightly gritty (from the coffee?). No alcohol presence, and a simultaneously sticky and smokey finish - the authentic diner experience.

D - Not an overly subtle beer, but a substantial improvement over regular Over Ale in my book. If they canned this version, I'd buy Over Ale over Daisy Cutter about 10-20% of the time (as opposed to the current rate of 0%). Reminiscent of Coffee Bender in some ways. It's good to see Half Acre doing some cask experiments like these, as the beer-reviewing community provides invaluable (and free) market research.

Serving type: cask

12-06-2011 15:38:25 | More by MasterSki

GbVDave

Illinois

4.05/5  rDev +4.4%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4

Served on cask at Fountainhead 12/5/2011.

A: Served a deep mahogany with one finger of off white cream on top. Carbonation was suprisingly active for the cask pour.

S: Killer freshly roasted coffee bean aroma. The citrus-y hops of the base beer were pretty noticeable when first poured, but as it warmed, the prevailing aromas were coffee and a bit of dark chocolate.

T: See above. Tangy cherry and coffee gradually took on notes of chocolate, toffee, and caramel.

M: In my opinion, this was served way too cold. It took 'till the very last sips of the glass for the proper temp to be achieved. The cold added bite that took away a little bit from what I expected. This was no fault of the beer, though.

O: I like that they treated Over Ale to a bit of coffee. Not my first choice to do something like this to, but a solid and surprising effort that I'm glad to have been able to try.

Serving type: cask

12-06-2011 01:04:17 | More by GbVDave