Bambino Ale
Boston Beer Works - Canal Street

 

Tasted on April 27, 2014 despite the "retired" status at the Fenway Beer Works.

Crystal clear dirty gold color. Good starting head that settles normally, but it leaves plenty of solid ring lace after each sip.

Barely malted grain aroma with an earthy hop nose. The smell is poorly affected by some of the bar smells.

Very hoppy flavor--lots of black pepper to the tongue almost from the start. Lip puckering aftertaste. Above average body with generous carbonation.

 

Tasted On-Tap 09/30/05 at the Boston Beer Works - Fenway in Boston, MA.

Straw colored with a low white wispy head... Adjunct city in aroma and flavor with little else to describe it. Light bodied and more like a macro lager than a micro ale.

Per BBW website: Bambino Ale
Straw colored light ale, brewed with rice to give a smooth, clean taste, and lightly hopped with a subtle bitterness. One of our featured beers @ BBW during baseball season, named after Babe Ruth and Fenway's infamous curse of the Bambino.
Season: fall Color: gold Alc./Vol: 4.5%

Break the Curse.

This beer poured a crystal clear yellow with a small creamy white head.

The nose was mostly yeast and bread. A very slight fruit crispness.

The taste was very light and smooth. Almost no taste at all. Crisp, clean, light malt, some fruityness, yeast,bread, dry, very very light bitterness and hop presence. Very fresh and easy going down. WIth almost no lingering taste or bitterness.

Overall it's a very light and refreshing beer. Basically this is the perfect beer for your buddy who refuses to drink anything but MGD. Maybe even a gateway beer for them. Nothing to write home about, but still... a fine a beer from BBW.

"Bambino Ale" or "Curse of the Bambino Ale"? After drinking this, I think the later. Light, not much body, the hops and pale taste were there, but they just laid there. Not the best in the house. Better than a macro, but just kinda watery when you get down to it.

“Lets choose a lightish beer, hey, Bambino is Italian for Baby, I’m part Italian so I’ll have that”, says fellow BA neo06051. So being the Gentleman I am, I ordered it.
This rationale was the highly scientific reasoning behind the selection of 50% of the 3rd round of beers at the Boston Beer Works in Canal Street, Boston on Saturday 1st Feb. 2003.
On arrival it looked great, a light colored Golden Lager beer that had distinct “Pilsner” traits. The head was decent, white, retentive, and the overall appearance was actually very good.
But it all went wrong when I stuck my nose into the beer after it was handed to me. Neo’s already curled up nose gave away something, but what?? After she had tried a sample, that look of “Thanks for getting this beer, but I don’t really like it, so what is your Porter like then” look alerted me to the fact that the Porter would win Round 3 hands down. It did. I tried the Bambino, and I found the nose had a strong perfume dimension that put me off to start with. It was hoppy but had too much of a flowery taste to it. I found it sickly to be honest. I stared at neo with the stock “we aren’t going to finish this are we, but we should drink it because we have paid for it” look. Neo was eyeing the Porter at this stage. I think we swapped beers, not sure though, but I do know that neither of us could finish this 1 Pint of beer, as hard as we tried.
I would say that overall I was personally very impressed with the beers at the Boston Beer Works. And this beer is by no means bad, or poor, certainly not. But, like neo06051, I think my taste strata is elsewhere here and I found this offering far too flowery and “perfumey” for a light session beer. We found the Blueberry Wheat Beer too sweet, even sickly, but we finished it easily. Even between 2 of us, we could not stomach finishing this single beer, and I do remember that it was the only beer we tried that day (and we tried many) that got a “Thumbs Down” as undrinkable, from the both of us. Maybe we had a "bad" pint - who knows??

Bambino: Looking for a lighter beer as the night wore on, and this was a decent choice. Very light, very refreshing with a crisp and clean bite of hops. Not bad.

Pale weathered straw colour with a tight tiny bubbled lace. Clean aroma that cradles a mild cracker maltiness. Light bodied with a sufficient crispness. Maltiness rides with a light biscuity and slightly doughy cracker flavour. Faint citric tones in the moderate hop bitterness that helps the brew along into the clean and dry finish.

Presentation: On tap.

Appearance: Light gold and extremely clear in colour, a pure white creamy head adorns this brew.

Smell: Semi floral hop and faint pale malt in the nose.

Taste: Light malt with a dash of rind hop flavour up front, then the malt leaves the mouth a bit grainy and dry.

Notes: A great introduction to flavourful beer. Very refreshing, a favourite among the locals. Bambino, when consumed, wards off bad luck for the Red Sox. Does it work, who knows?