Bitter
John Harvard's Brewery & Ale House

 

Appearance: Pours a hazy amber with a dense, creamy, beige head, which thins to a film leaving patchy lace.

Smell: Mostly citric and resiny hops with some mild bready malts.

Taste: Bready, toasty malts upfront that moves into a malty caramel sweetness with some fruity hints. The finish is a citric, grapefruit bitterness.

Mouthfeel: Light-bodied, low carbonation, smooth.

Drinkability: Flavorful, mild, very drinkable.

Sampled at Nerax:

Poured from the cask with a strong nose of flowers upfront. Sweet fruit candy comes to mind, and butterscotch followed. The taste starts with a zip of bitter hop grapefruit, following by a caramel blast of sweetness, balanced with a sweet tart tangy hop presence.

On cask @ John Harvard's in Cambridge, MA.

Hazy orange color with a nice fluffy head. Although the appearance was not similar to the cask-conditioned beers I had at NERAX where the head on all the beers had a bubbly appearance. Pleasant aroma. Faint hops. Nothing great, nothing bad, just not a whole lot going on. The taste, mouthfeel, and drinkability were all great. Slightly bitter but unbelievably drinkable, and it coats your mouth well too. This would make an excellent session beer and it's definitely worth a try even though it might not live up to other beer's standards for the style.

Pours a nice hazy caramel-amber topped with a two finger creamy off-white head, leaves webbed rings of lacing. Picture perfect appearance.
Soft and fresh aroma, floral, tea and biscuit/toast.
Very soft, biscuit, cracker and floral taste. Light citrus aftertaste, nice toasted malt base, some toffee as well.
Drinkability.. imperial pints of a cask bitter and a newspaper it doesn't get much better than this. Super smooth, light to medium bodied, a perfect session beer, I could kick back and drink it all day.

Sampled at the Harvard Square location from cask.

This bitter poured a slightly hazy amber color with creamy, off-white foam that persisted and coated the glass. The smell was a very nice, floral hop aroma with some fruity hops and a bit of malt. The taste was very malty with a good taste of floral hops and some mild hop bitterness. The mouthfeel was smooth and creamy with medium body and low carbonation. There was a light hoppiness in the finish. This was a very nice, English bitter. This was make a great session beer.

On cask at the Cambridge brewpub...

Hazy peachy brown appearance, big fluffy pale head and tons of clingy lace. Flowery nose, very nice. Good but slightly buttery malt start, adeptly balanced by hops beginning to close. Reserved but well-done for style, just slightly peppery and fragrant. Good creaminess and cottony carbonation, lightly candyish aftertaste. Well done beer, quaffable and and easy going in the cask Bitter tradition.

A cloudy pull clears to reddish copper. Like amber it captures the light nicely. By the time it reaches the table it's the color of a perfectly brewed cup of tea.

The head, though thin, is opaque as a good coat of white paint. It falls quickly, leaving a few rings near the top of the glass. The glass itself feels warm, the beer cool.

Faint smell of sour hops. The malt is mild and clean tasting in a light body. The carbonation can be thickened by clouds of sharp bubbles, or pleasantly chewy and tender.

I'm liking this more and more. Sometimes it starts to seem heavier toward the end of the glass, verging on syrupy. Others it stays light all the way down. There's still a bit of metallic tang in the finish, and some sourness in the hops. To be honest, I've come to expect this sort of thing from JH, but in this case, it's mild enough to but cast a bit of interest in this pleasant session beer.

Most quaffable.

Had this beer on tap at JH in Harvard Square. Cask conditioned and warm. It poured very clear amber/red with a firm white head.

Not much in the way of a nose. Very soft and subtle, some very slight hop smells, but not much else, it's a bit hard to make it out in the atmosphere.

The taste was mildly bitter. Woody, very light malty, almost root like, soft citrus hop, with a soft bitter punch.
It starts mellow with a bump of bitterness near the end.

Overall it's not a bad beer. A bit green for an english bitter. Most tend to be very subtle and mellow, especially on the hop side. This tended to be a little too in your face with the citrus hop taste. A few months of ageing could do it well, but still, a nice beer, worth trying.

I'll usually always ask for cask if see it on, anywhere.

This was a dark golden color, nice head, and lace that left little rings throughout the glass.

Very mild, slightly sweet, hops present but not overwhelmingly so. Easy to drink, and have several, would get again.

A middle of the road brew, but that is what bitters are supposed to be. Highly drinkable with a slight touch of hops with in the meek malt backbone. Thin bodied but still full of flavour with traces of fruitiness and even a ghost like diacetyl was present. Great to wash down any meal they put in front of you.

A very easy drinking Bitter ale, that really shines when it warms up a bit. Light, very smooth, mildly malty with a watery hop profile. An outstanding session beer.