Stock Ale - Orchard Street Brewery

beerguy101

California

4.13/5  rDev +20.4%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 5 | overall: 4.5

Dark amber color, medium white foamy head. Aroma is malty and sweet. Richly roasted malts, lightly hopped. Caramel flavor, rich malt taste. Full flavor. Mouthfeel is very full and round. Finish is clean. Aftertaste is malty, no bitterness. Very nice beer.

Serving type: bottle

09-13-2003 02:41:52 | More by beerguy101

RedDiamond

Oregon

3.95/5  rDev +15.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4

This so-called “stock ale” tastes of a sort of toasted filbert bread brushed with spiced honey. It’s flavor scores high marks for inventiveness, though a bolder sustain would be welcome. Its warm brown coppertones and nutty bouquet are pleasing.

This ale has “flavors of caramel and nuts.” Says so right on the bottle. In short, it is pleasantly peculiar. A queer beer. If this stock ale were a sentence, its finish would be a question mark, perhaps in a zapf chancery font. It is good to see brewers taking such chances. The pale ale label is misplaced.

Serving type: bottle

04-28-2004 05:26:03 | More by RedDiamond

Bighuge

Minnesota

2.83/5  rDev -17.5%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 2.5

This beer is kind of an orange/amber/scarlet red mixture. A small beige head leaves sparse lace. A sweet melange of orange marmalade and plum on the nose. And some nut character as well. After tasting this, I can't believe this is a pale ale. It's pretty weird. The nuttiness and earthiness are overwhelming. Almost like almond extract. There's some light base maltiness underneath showing biscuity tones. Hops? Really in the background. Not what I'd expect from a "pale ale." This is a drinkable beer, just not that enjoyable.

Thanks for the extra LBB.

Serving type: bottle

01-28-2004 05:11:15 | More by Bighuge

RoyalT

Ohio

3.23/5  rDev -5.8%
look: 3 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 2 | overall: 3

Appearance – Light brown in color but hazy with a decent head. This doesn’t look like a Pale Ale.

Smell – Nuts! No, seriously, lots of nuts. I’ve never had a nutty Pale Ale before. It’s almost funny, because the hops are saying, “Pale Ale,” and the strong malt and nut aroma is saying, “No, specialty beer.” It all smells good, just a little nutty (I mean, “crazy”).

Taste – Well, for a nutty pale ale this isn’t bad. The hops are kind of hard to pick out but I got a small hint of pine resin and maybe something floral. The malt is sweetened with caramel and toffee. The roasted peanuts steal the show, though.

Mouthfeel – I thought this was the ale’s weak point. This stuff is beyond thin. Not in a good way, like a nice, easy-drinking session ale. I mean, this is like drinking nut-flavored water.

Drinkability – What can I say? I didn’t pour it out but I’m not buying any more of it.

Serving type: bottle

01-15-2004 03:12:01 | More by RoyalT

Reidrover

Oregon

1.88/5  rDev -45.2%
look: 3.5 | smell: 2 | taste: 2 | feel: 2 | overall: 1

Oik comes in the 12 oz brown stubbie..with that label it looks like Lee& Perrins Worcestershire Sauce.
Appearance of the ale was pretty gooddeep scarlet red sort of hazy with a small off-white head..lacing present.
,,ew the aroma is not good kinda sour with some hazelnut aroma..some medicinal tar also comes to mind.
Nah this beer must be off..the taste is really nasty..like cold cheap tea..with an overlying sourness.
Not good on the tongue just acidic.
I cannot finish this beer..its awful..I hope this was just a bad bottle

Serving type: bottle

09-06-2003 03:35:31 | More by Reidrover

ecoboy

Rhode Island

2.83/5  rDev -17.5%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 2.5

Mixed bubbled tan head sits atop a cherrywood hued ale. The label says unfiltered; it has remarkable clarity if that's the case. Aroma is mostly floral with an oily nut quality.

The taste (and I got this through all four bottles I tried) has some fruit and hop bitter, but also a disconcerting vegetable taste. Margaret said "spinach" and I'd have to agree, although it's got some zucchini and baked bean in there as well. "Flavors of caramel and nuts" says the label, and I'm not getting a lot of either.

An acceptable balance, but overall, oddly unsatisfying.

Serving type: bottle

08-07-2003 16:43:10 | More by ecoboy

TheLongBeachBum

California

3.43/5  rDev 0%
look: 3 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.5

This also came in a 6-Pack from Trader Joes ($4.99). The 12 fl.oz brown bottle is the short stubby type. All Orchard Street Brewery beers have generic labels (and all annoyingly with no strength listed). The label for Stock Ale is a Red color.

The beer pours clear, although yeast was evident in the bottom of the Bottle, which I carefully avoided pouring. Initial carbonation is high but soon fades. It quickly settles to a clear brown, chestnut colored ale. The head is slightly off-white, but sadly very short lived - in fact it breaks up very quickly to a pond scum finish, which sadly ruins the appearance of the beer totally for me.
Aromas are average in strength, but it is quite complex; I got malt, nuts, pears, Devon cream toffee and that sickly sweet burnt sugar Candy smell that you get at Fairs (in England anyway). The Tastes are equally strange, begins with a malty start, then caramel, then the Devon toffee (again) in the middle, with a mild candy sweetness, and then some fruitiness to finish with.
A reasonable drinking beer but there is just too much going on for me. It is a beer that just changes too often and therefore fails to be something because it tries too hard to be everything. The mouthfeel, as with the Golden Ale, is also very light, and the Body of the beer is somewhat lacking which also detracts from the overall experience for it to find my favour in future.

Not great, nor bad, but not distinctive either - just different.

To be honest, this reminded me more of a 3.6% ABV Nut Brown Ale found on draft in the UK, rather than an Amber/ Red Ale, as listed. I am not sure I would buy this again. I think I will just stick with the Golden Ale from Orchard Street in future.

Serving type: bottle

12-12-2002 21:03:17 | More by TheLongBeachBum

Gusler

Arizona

3.78/5  rDev +10.2%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 3 | overall: 4

The beer pours a pretty as in eye catching deep amber color the head masterful in its size, creamy in texture with great sticky sheets of fine lace to cover the glass. Light floral tones greet the nose, crisp and lightly tart with malt to seal it off. Ambrosial at the front, top is medium in mouth feel with a purposeful carbonation and hops to please the taste buds. Aftertaste malt dry, and a beer I find quite appealing, not great, just a plain good drinking beer.

Serving type: bottle

12-08-2002 08:18:46 | More by Gusler

cokes

Wisconsin

4/5  rDev +16.6%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Tricky little guy here. Not what I expected. There is alot going on. Some of it works, some of it doesn't. Mostly the former.
Attractive deep amber-orange. Sandy head is persistant throughout.
Weird aromatics. Toffee, stawberries, passion fruit, and tequilla (but not in an alcoholic sort of way).
Taste is similarily all over the place. Toffee, and several sorts of berries (staw- and raspberries seem to be the primary tones). Honey drizzled biscuits. Toasted and nutty hues enter midway. Watered-down alcohol is noted towards the end. Hopping in a nonfactor, but wipes things up in the finish.
Medium bodied, lively medium carbonation.
Disheveled and manic, but likeable anyway.

Cheers to jreitman. Jeers to Fed Ex.

Serving type: bottle

10-16-2002 21:24:32 | More by cokes

NeroFiddled

Pennsylvania

3.6/5  rDev +5%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.5

Hazy deep peach body - almost mahogany - in color, with a frothy ivory head that holds quite well and leaves some good lace. The aroma is fruity with notes of grapes, prunes, apricots and pears. There's also an almost wort-like maltiness that is lightly mineralish. The body is medium with a gentle, natural carbonation making it very soft in the mouth. The flavor starts softly fruity with a combination of light and dark fruits as in the aroma, gently reveals a candyish malt in the middle, and finishes with a powdery dryness and slightly mouth-coating maltiness. This beer relies heavily on it's softly fruity yeast characteristics. It's very well balanced, and maybe even too balanced, as neither the malt nor the hop predominate. It's not dull, but it doesn't really have any distinctive features other than it's yeast qualities. Still, quite unique, somewhat interesting and fairly enjoyable.

Serving type: bottle

09-17-2002 18:23:14 | More by NeroFiddled

jreitman

California

4.1/5  rDev +19.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5

Dark amber with lots of light tan-white head. Caramel and nuts present in the nose with the nuts dominating. The nuts come across nicely on the palate with good sweet undertones. Only slightly bitter. Overall, a easily drinkable and unique beer.

Serving type: bottle

06-04-2002 22:01:43 | More by jreitman