Archive for the 'Real Ale' category
Atlantic Brewing Bar Harbor Real Ale
I gotta be honest with you folks – I don’t even know what a “Real Ale” is. Maybe I’m a hack who parades as a beer reviewer, but I’m at least a hack that drinks a lot of beer, and I’ve never been confronted with a beer that labels itself only as ‘real’. So, I’m not going to bother and research the style – I’ll just review this from the hip and see if it works out.
The Real Ale pours a very deep brown that only shows its color when held up to the light. It is obviously, however, well filtered. The head on this is a light caramel color, but frankly doesn’t stick around for very long. The aroma of this is interesting – there is a great amount of smoke here with hints of bacon – it’s overall rather complex and hard to peg. The flavor here is along the same lines as the aroma. The first and most obvious presence is of smoky charcoal. There is a sweetness on the back of this that is actually a bit ‘porkish’, but the predominant flavor, front to back, is along the lines of what would happen if you put a chunk of burnt wood in your mouth. Now, I know that doesn’t sound fabulous, but it isn’t bad. Some folks are really into smoky beers, and they’re going to love it. But, overall, that’s about it. This has a relatively light mouthfeel, a smoky, meaty flavor, and a smoky aftertaste. Not something I’ll likely buy again, but I can appreciate it enough to get through this six-pack…
