Boothbay Special Bitter
Sheepscot Valley Brewing Company

Cask pour at Great Lost Bear. Poured in a shaker, the beer is a bright, ruby-amber coloring with a tall, frothy, big bubbled, off-white head. Nose of toffee, vanilla, and cream sweetness, with hints of roast and subtle bitterness. Flavors of toffee and biscuit blend, smooth and light. Some tangy fruit sweetness, blending nicely. The body is very light, almost thin, not allowing the cask serving to impart any of the normal smooth characteristics. Rich, sweet caramel and berry blend in the aftertaste. Decent lacing along the glass as you drink. Smooth, clean finish, with a subtle sweet linger. Tasty enough, but lacking a little something to give it that memorable punch.

 

Had this last night, on cask at the Great Lost Bear in Portland, Maine. This was my favorite beer of the night but it was kind of an off night. This had a fairly tame appearance, a slightly cloudy grayish tinged copper color with a fair fluffy head and decent lacing. The aroma was a mellow grain, sort of biscuit-like with just an edge of citrus hop, decent but not head turning. The taste delivers a very even, polite bitterness, again somewhat citrus but very mellow which matches the viscous feel of this stuff. Carbonation is very low, and again I sense buttered biscuit, but generally it is hard to put a finger on. Enjoyable but leaves you wondering what you just drank. The bitterness is not memorable here leaving this to be a kind of "neutral" experience. It's very drinkable, and actually not bad considering I haven't had many cask ales that I'm crazy about. I would drink it again and it was good enough to make me want to try more of their brews.

Had this on cask at the Great Lost Bear in Portland, Maine. Poured a nice reddish brown with excellent clarity and a very nice head and lacing. Smells just like a loaf of whole wheat bread right out of the oven. This is what they mean when they say "bready malt" Very pleasant. The taste is pretty pleasant a well, bready with a light earthy bitterness and the tiniest bit of grainy tang. Mouthfeel is smooth and relatively thick for the style. Nice.

On cask at the Great Lost Bear.

Pour an amber color, some haze, decent fluffy looking head.

Smell has a caramel aroma with a slight hop presence, bit fruity.

Very slick and buttery tasting, diacetyl is obviously present. Caramel malt is present but not overwhelming, some spiciness, goes down very easily with a slight hop bitterness near the end, but the bitterness is not as strong as you would think. Low carbonation and served at the right temperature, per a cask.

As much as I like how smooth is goes down, as well as easily, it was a tad thin and the bitterness needs improvement.

Sheepscot- Boothbay Special Bitter

On cask at the Great Lost Bear, Portland.

A- Cloudy copper brown with a small foamy head.
S- Spicy pepper, clove, caramel malt.
T- Clove, pepper, poppy seed, caramel malt.
M- Low natural carbonation mild throughout with a dry spicy finish.

Overall- A good beer on cask. This is sessionable.

served in pint glass on-tap at glb
deep filtered reddish amber. decent head and retention. no real lacing. musty malty sweet caramel nose. taste was an interesting understated bitterness, some faded burnt caramel that is stuck through with a reasonable amount of hops. grain in there too. taste on the whole is ghostly with a great overarching woody character from cask aging. very balanced with a lasting finish. creamy mouthfeel with no noticable carbonation (true to form). medium-bodied and chewy. wish they hadn't have just run out of this one after my first pint...

Cask, somewhere in Maine. Darkish amber with a small white head of big bubbled carbonation. Aromas are mild and buttery, with some yeasty notes, and the staple biscuity malts. Hops are there but are definately in the background and the mouthfeel is cask goodness. Drinkability is also nice for this bitter. Good stuff.

Pours a nice medium amber. At least that's how it appears in the almost blackness of the back of the GLB. Solid little head with a nice amount of lacing.

Smells very bread like with a hint of caramel.

Lots of diacetyl sweetness up front, which kind of suprised me for this style. Have to say it tasted good though. Moves to a strongly caramel malt profile then gets a nice bitter finish to it. May be getting near the bottom of the cask as I found some dead soldiers hanging around in the glass.

Mouthfeel was quite moderate with a nicely balanced body. Not a lot of texture here.

Served barely below room temp. I likee, makes it quite quaffable. I had two.

Hmm, a disapointing cask at the Greta Lost Bear...hear goes...Very clear and dark brown when poured. Small head. Some fruit and licorice in the taste, aftertaste is a bit bitter. This is what I didn't like about the beer: while medium bodied, it had a syrupy consistency that just wasn't pleasin'. It just was a disapointing. pat