Dinner
Maine Beer Company

 

 

 

#141, yum!

 

Heavily floral with resinous character but not overbearing or bitter. Clear light gold body with a brief white head. Almost wine like in its aftertaste. Especially in the heat building up in the throat on each sip and the wine like accentuation while having actual dinner. Honey and melon rind, cantaloupe flesh with some dried tropical fruit character that is enveloped by a resinous yet unbitter bite. Not too much malts in this one compared to Maine Lunch so the hop profile is definitely the star here.

 

 

This fine offering was gifted to me by BEERchitect and I am indebted to him immensely! This beer receives the highest rating in all categories by me. One of three imperial IPAs that are hard to get but also meet the expectations and surpass! Welcome to my big leagues Dinner!!!

 

Been waiting over a decade to try this beer and even longer to visit the brewery. Finally did both! Had it on draft and took a few bottles home with a date of 26AUG22. This absolutely meets the hype. Incredibly delicious and absurdly drinkable for the ABV and style. SO fruity and so floral. The smooth body and delicate mouthfeel are truly impressive. This is the real deal.

 

Pours a dirty darker straw color; cloudy but see through; white head that laces quite beautifully, a dense film lingers and lingers.

The aroma literally jumps out of the glass on this beer; it has an essential oil like brightness to it, incredibly vibrant. A mix of fresh in season fruits; nothing tropical to me just local summer fruits, but with an extra citrus like bite to it; a little bit of vegetal dank on the finish, it cuts short of onion garlic territory for me.

Taste is much of the same but the beer becomes less fruity more citrus, pithy, with a pretty nice minor sweet malt presence; slight resin/sap aftertastes.

This is a double IPA that is for sure; it has a pretty hefty body, higher end of medium. A very clean drinking beer, dry and biting bitterness on the finish, prickly sappy tingling on the tongue. Also letting you know this is a double IPA is the slight alcohol presence on the finish, no overbearing by any means but present.

Well it is easy to see why this beer has the reputation it does. The aroma alone is intoxicating but the flavors and feel combine to make this a very good beer; I love the bite and big hop presence on such an aromatic beer. Lovely beer.

I've never come across this highly regarded beer, so was pleasantly surprised to see it on tap when I was out to dinner last night. The appearance was that of.....beer. Cloudy and medium yellow, with almost no head. The lack of head could certainly be chalked up to the fact that it had probably been a minute or two between the pour and its arrival at my table. Regardless, while there was nothing wrong with the appearance, nothing particularly stood out either.

The nose was a different story. I'm desensitized to IPA aromas at this point, but this beer smelled amazing Loads of citrus, mango and other tropical notes. Simply an excellent smelling beer.

The taste was very nice, but not as tropical as the nose. Grapefruit was the only taste I could pick out, but whatever else was there it was above average, but didn't blow me away (keeping in mind I'm not a big lover of IPAs). The feel, however was amazing. Very full, creamy and pillowy. Absolutely excellent.

Overall, I though this was a very good beer, led by the aroma and the feel. I hope to be able to luck into some bottles sometime right around a NBS BIF so I can share it with others.

 

 

 

 

 

From a 16.9oz bottle, dated 07/29/22. Served in a spiegelau IPA glass.

Pours a just barely hazed honey-gold with two-plus fingers of pouffy, shaving cream-like foam. Retention is excellent, leaving a fat bubbly-sudsy cap and a tattered curtain of lacing.

Nose is sweet, malty, and layered with aromas of orange peel and pine needles.

Taste is as expected, leaning into the sweet and malty end of balanced. The earthy-woody pine needle, resinous character is prominent, along with caramel sweetness, oily orange peel and a squeeze of lemon.

Feel is clean, just a little too brisk to pass as smooth (entirely in a good way) and no more than medium bodied with bright, zesty carbonation. There’s a cheerful hop oily tingle on the tongue and a slight boozy warmth in the gullet.

As always when rating MBC bottles, overall score is marked down 0.25 in recognition of the stupid, overpriced pint-plus bottles. Because principles, right? (Replaces a 4.46 rating without a review from 11/05/15… thank you, Dr. J. for the rare opportunity to have this one again).

 

 

Just an amazing step up from Lunch. Another classic from Maine Beer Co. that really lets the tropical nature of the hops shine through. Where Lunch is a mellow, refined take on the style and very clean, Dinner is a punch in the mouth and in a good way.

 

 

 

Tried at Moe’s with Tim, 7/8/22

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On tap at Sabatini's in Exeter pa yesterday.

Looks very good in the glass. Honey yellow body with a nice white head. This eventually shrinks to a thin ring, good lacing early on.

Delightful hoppy aroma with a side of mixed fruit favoring the non citrus.

On tasting, smooth, hoppy, delicious. Fruit notes confirm the nose. Very easy drinking, abv fairly well hidden but you get the feel of it.

Mouth close to full, finish manages to be clean, but full of hop flavor.

Overall, have missed out on this one the last few times it was at Sabz. Not this time. Beautifully crafted dipa. Seemingly simple, but a lot of thought has gone into producing this classic.