Olvalde Farm and Brewing Company - The Auroch's Horn

Tonight I'm going to try this big ale from a small new brewery in Rollingstone, MN that opened up for business in early 2011.  Olvalde Farm and Brewing Company is a small family brewery that uses ancient brewing traditions and culture.  All their brews are warm conditioned, unfiltered, and fermented in the bottle.  The Auroch's Horn is this brewery's first release, and just hit the shelves in late March.  It's an "ancient ale" brewed with barley, wheat, and honey, which were common ingredients in ales over 2000 years ago according to Roman historical documents.  This type of ale was consumed from the horn of the auroch, a wild bull that's now extinct! 

The beer comes in a corked pint bottle, cork comes off with a pretty loud pop.  After a rough pour, there was a 2+ inch frothy white head.  The color is a hazy dark gold, and the head subsides slowly with lots of lacing left behind.  The beer looks great, and carbonation was not an issue here in the bottle conditioning.

The aroma is heavily belgian yeasty funk, with bananas, cloves and mellow spices.  Also some faint grassy smells in there.  The taste begins with a wave of flavors that really imitate the aroma, with cloves, bananas, and loads! of sweet honey.  The honey plays around with a light malt backbone.  Then comes a hint of toasty bread (with honey on top).  Fruity esters abound.  The carbonation of this brew was perfect - mild and light enough to give the beer a creamy medium body.  Really an ideal texture for the flavors of the beer.

Overall Rating:  Olvalde Brewing is off to a strong start!  This was a great brew.  At 10%, it's definitely a slow-sipper, unless you're a modern-day viking with an immortal liver.  If you're in the Twin Cities area, go to Four Firkins and pick up a bottle of this beer....I think this brewery has a lot of good things in store for us.  

**Side Note:  As the beer warmed, the alcohol became more prominent, along with the alcohol burn.  Really took over and pushed aside some of the flavors.  It didn't necessarily ruin the beer, but certainly made the last third of the bottle less appetizing.