Dead Elephant Ale plays on the history of St Thomas Ontario, where Jumbo the circus elephant, owned by P.T. Barnum, was killed by a locomotive in a classification yard. A life size statue of his likeness can be seen in town, and I myself have experienced it many time from childhood on. Drinking this beer is a cool blast from the past for me, not just for the historic significance, but the reminiscing from my youth as well.
It pours a caramel colour, clear with one finger of head that has fairly good retention. It leaves a solid uneven cap and slight lacing on the glass. There is a decent carbonation on the pour, but not many active bubbles as it sits waiting for me to snap some pictures. It smells like roasty caramel malts, pumpernickel bread, oranges, pine and sweet flowery hops. The caramel malt comes through in the flavour as well, with sweet pine, citrus, and a very long but muted bitter hop finish. The flavour doesn't bowl you over like American IPA's can, but the balance is good and the complexity is there. It isn't overly bitter either, which makes it more sessionable, as well as accessible, pretty impressive for a 6.8% Ale. It is medium light on the tongue, with a prefect amount of carbonation and not too slick, but not too dry.
I like this beer, I really do. I don't want to sound like I am pandering, or shamelessly promoting local just for the sake of local, but between Iron Spike and this pint, these are two quality beers that I really enjoy. As a short disclaimer, there aren't too many quality craft beers that I don't like! It may lack the aggressive flavour profile of other "big" beers, but it certainly outweighs the pretenders. It's interesting, but easy enough to drink that most people would have no problem liking this beer, including some of my Coors Light buddies. The pine, citrus and good dose of hops is highly enjoyable, and if the light beer crowd isn't careful, a gateway to hard to find, "mecca" type beers. I give it 8/10 and I drink it quite often.
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