UPDATED: JAN 11, 2022 16 oz. Can. Aroma has toffee, wood, and minerals. Flavor is a odd concoction of english toffee, odd vanilla hint, and a strange butterscotch-like flavor. Meh….

Pours a cloudy golden-copper with no head. Semi tart nose with prominent oak notes. Flavors don’t meld well. A tartness that comes through much like and off flavor due to a brewing error, a dull horehound candy sweetness, and oak. Alcohol is noted way to easily in the flavor as well. It’s reminiscent of the Filipino beer, Red Horse. I’m going to let the other bottle age for a few years to see if it gets any better.

On tap at brewery. Pours hazy amber with a small white head. Aroma is grain, toffee, alcohol (vodka?), and some oak. Taste is vodka, berries, toffee, and a dull, faint oakiness. Medium body. Moderate carbonation. Thin and oily but fairly coating mouthfeel.

On tap at the brewery. Had a few Element products previously and found them to be fairly ordinary brews for a big price tag. But the trip to the brewery was quite enjoyable, and a reasonably priced glass of ESO was fine. The brewers are now canning their stuff, which hopefully will bring their prices down, since I now think that they do know how to make good brews. Pours an orangey brown, aroma of caramel and oak, plenty of foam. Creamy texture and a complex and pleasant flavor, bit of vanilla, the oak, sweet malt and a nice dry finish. A quality ale. Additionally, this out of the way brewery is well worth a visit.

September 2016 - Large paper wrapped bottle shared at Leighton’s. As ’Element Extra Special Oak’. Many thanks to LKS for this one. Amber orange, still and clear with a foamy off-white head. Aroma is airy, bready, apple, general bakery. Body is light, spritzy carbonation, frothy. Taste is thin malts, oaky, some vanilla, sodawater. Doesn’t really have the malt character to carry the oak. A bit thin, but it’s OK. (3.1)

Bottle shared at Leightons gaff , 19/09/2016. Many thanks to Leighton for this one. A dark orange coloured pour with a loose off white head. Aroma is semi sweet toasted malts, cola cubes, papery, old malts. Flavour is composed of aged papery malts, faint oak and vanilla, toast, nutty, papery. Palate is dry, airy carbonation, drying finish. Lingering roast and dried fruits.

75cl bottle shared at Leighton’s garbage share. Many thanks to Leighton for this one. It pours a clean orange copper color with a minimal white head. Aroma is sweet oaky with notes of vanilla, wood, raisins. Taste is also sweet and oaky, lightly boozy with notes of raisins, vanilla and wood. Medium bodied with good carbonation. Overall, nice one

Bottle thanks to LKS. It pours clear deep brown with a medium off-white head. The aroma is earthy, wood, toasted nut, leather, caramel sweetness, rivita and a touch of dried fruits. The taste is dry, wood, leather, toasted nut, caramel, toffee, big of alcohol heat, syrupy, honeyed fruits and toasted brown sugar with a dry, slightly astringenct finish. Medium + body and high, foamy carbonation. Pretty dry and woody. OK at best.

Bottle shared in London - sourced from CPK. Pours clear, deep gold with a creamy, off-white head. Quite woody in the nose, some varnish, ripe berries. Medium sweet flavour with strong woody character, dried berries, some toffee, bread. Medium to full bodied with average carbonation. Warming finish with some woody dryness, earth, more dried berries, a little ham, orange peel. Not bad.

UPDATED: MAY 12, 2019 Combination rate of bottle pour into pint glass (2016), taster pour at Craft Brew Race, Worcester (2019). Appearance is light-to-medium brown with finger-width beige head with decent retention and lacing. Aroma is caramel roast, hint of coffee (2019), strong oak (2016). Taste is strong oak--hard to get anything else (2016), caramel roast and mild coffee with hint of oak and nuts (2019). Palate is light-to-medium bodied with thin, smooth texture and average-to-lively carbonation with oaky finish. Overall, the oak dominated the 2016 experience to the exclusion of other aroma/flavors so rated it 2.9 but the 2019 pour had more mellow oak (maybe too mellow) so other flavors shined through (rated 3.8). So, perhaps the length of time it's been aged in the barrels or the age in the bottle may have been different between the two.