Dominion Ale

[steveh]

Old Dominion Brewing, Virginia
12 oz bottle (bottled 10/03)* 4.7 ABV

A hazy gold, nearly amber color with a thin, white, persistent head.

Citric, hoppy (Cascade?) aroma. The label states that Perle, Willamette, Mount Hood, and Kent Golding (dry hopping?) hops are used in this ale - talk about a hop stew, I wonder how they devised that recipe? The label also says that the "Chico" American Ale yeast is used, so maybe that's where the Sierra Nevada nose similarity comes from.

Light malty flavor with insistent hop character. Slight phenol in initial tasting (due to the age of the bottle?), but faded quickly. Crisp and refreshing with a nice hop aftertaste and a lingering, light, cracker-like malt back.

Crisp, thin body with subtle assertiveness from light malts.

A fine pale ale in the American tradition, different than SNPA in its hop character due to the choice of some different hops. This ale reminds me of some of the better pale ales that followed the SN trend. Highly recommended to pale ale drinkers - thanks for the tasting opportunity Chaz. You're fortunate to have this brewery as a local - how's this beer on tap? Can't wait to try their Pils.

S.

*correction: After looking closely at a bottle of Dominion's Lager, and seeing the date was a bottled on date, I dug out the empty Ale bottle and noticed it also was a bottling date.

[MeridianFC]

Funny how these things come up, I was just out at the brewery the other day. I do know that they do not pasteurize any of their beer, so travel may have affected your sample. They go to amazing pains in their bottling line to avoid oxidation. They have some strip of German bottling machine that fills the bottle with CO2, then fills the bottle with beer, then shoots CO2 across the neck before capping. Maybe that's common, but I'd never heard of the like.

As far as phenols, the above bottling steps may not be at issue, but I've never noticed those flavors in the beer here

[steveh]

I still think the off taste may have been due to the beer being past its "best by" date, but it was far from distracting. A very fine brew.

I wonder if, by shooting the CO2 across the opening (which is what I'm assuming is what's described), it sucks out any oxygen that may be in the open space between the beer level and the cap? Thus drawing out what could potentially stale the beer faster.

S.

[MeridianFC]

That is exactly the case. The beer is not permitted to come in contact with oxygen at any point during the bottling, or that's what the brewer told me. He did mention that they have to rely on good handling because of the lack of any pasteurization.

More power to 'em, I say.

[chazwicke]

Meridian is correct. I remember when Jerry Bailey first got this machine and he was extremely proud of it. It is a German machine and I think it might be made by Krones. I found out that one of my cousins works as a US rep for Krones.

The Old Dominion beers are very well respected. They are actually one of the older East Coast brewers and consistantly make good beer. I do not know what thier current output is but at one time they were near the top in comparison to other craft brewers across the country.

I will be sending you a package soon Steveh. I'll get the freshest I can find. Old Dominion was one of the first to put that bottling date on the sides of thier labels.

[chazwicke]

Also, Many brewers cut thier teeth at Old Dominion. John Mallet and Ron Barchette (sp) of Victory BC fame both came from Dominion. Jerry Bailey learned at Stoudts