Miasmatic Review

Sand Creek English Style Special Ale.

It’s been a couple of weeks, and I have a ton of beers to review. I can’t believe I’m slacking as badly as I am. Actually, yes I can, I’ve been lazy and spending a lot of free times in bars drinking beer there. It’s summer, so I’m trying to avoid the heat! Yea, that’s it! Tonight’s beer is a first time donation by someone. Someone that wizened up and left Okla-farookin’-Homa. So tonight I’m reviewing Sand Creek’s English Style Special as donated by Rave. Sand Creek Brewing is in Black River Falls, WI.

Sand Creek uses a standard 12 oz brown bottle. The body label is a dark brownish red color. The company logo is at the top in yellow, the name of the beer is under it in a slightly orangish banner. There is a matching neck label that has the company logo on it as well.

The beer itself is a rich dark amber color with bronze highlights. There appears to be no haziness to it. Light passes through easily, however it is dark enough that you can’t see clearly through to the other side. When poured into the glass, an inch thick tan foamy head formed. It faded slowly and a good film and ring on the top of the beer was present until I finished what was in my glass.

The smell starts with a nice roasted malt scent. Caramel and Toffee is the most prominent malt scent that comes out. There is just a hint of nuttiness to it that should be present in an English Style ale, not as much as I would have expected, but it was still there. The taste was rather mild and unassuming. Mostly of caramel malts, a mild nuttiness, a faint hint of cocoa is what you notice at first. There is a slight hop backbone to it that rounds the flavor out.

This is a medium bodied beer; there is a good level of carbonation to it that is standard with the style.

Over all for an English Style ale, I was little disappointed. The flavor wasn’t as prominent as one would expect. It’s very unassuming. It is very easy to drink, and is something that I could see drinking on a hot summer night, Possibly while sitting around a campfire with some friends or even while playing a game at the local bar. I could also see someone sitting down and enjoying a nice platter of fish and chips while sipping on one. Overall I found it a decent beer to drink. I give it 5.5 out of 10.