Cambridge Bitter
Machine House Brewery

 

 

Pours a rich copper color; mainly clear in the glass with just a trace of yeast cloudiness; dense, slow-rising carbonation; excellent head, one-finger plus height and long-lasting. Fine aroma; solid caramel sweetness combined with fruity esters; fresh apple and pear. Pleasant taste; delicate malt sweetness with a pome fruit character; excellent hop bitterness, relatively bold but not overpowering. Medium-light body; crisp; semi-dry.

The beauty of a well-crafted, traditional styled English beer brings joy to my heart. I love the relative simplicity of this beer, yet it doesn't lack depth. The beer develops more complexity as it gently warms. The low ABV is a plus.

ABV: 3.8%; pouring temperature: 39.4 °F; canning info: can-conditioned; no date
Source: @snaotheus

 

very pleasant all day drinker, it was epic to finally make it in here, been meaning to for years, never got to the old place, which i am told had more charm, but this is a rad spot too, and the cask selections speak for themselves. this is heart for being as simple as it sounds, authentic, a little hoppy, fresh and well conditioned, a nice rusty glow, some haze, and a creamy hand pulled white head with great retention and silky film on the edges of the glass as it drinks. the aroma is bready, a lot of character in this golden promise malt, graham cracker, toasted bread, toffee without being sugary really, a little light leather, minerality, and the flavor brings the same, nice freshness to it. the hops arent just for bittering, they bring up front grassy notes followed by some mild orange on the back end before a little bitter bite does kick up, but the grain drives this, golden raisin and even apple fruitiness to it, nice balance, traditional but distinctive, a good place for this style to live in. smooth and fuller bodied for being this low alcohol, some old world english ale yeast is also on display, although i did expect that to be a bit more robust in this, and in several others i had while i was in, very mild yeast presence in much of their beer. this can be a mindless drinker, but it can also be a nerds paradise, very pleasant to just slow sip on for awhile and catch up with the homies. machine house is under the radar outside of their loyalists in the immediate area, but for my money these were some of the best domestic cask beers ive ever encountered...

16oz can purchased at Rocket Market, high atop Spokane's South Hill. First time I'd seen it.

Poured into a 16oz mug, this was a murky taupe color, with the wispiest of off-white head, and that vanished almost immediately.

Floral, sweet hop aroma, along with a toasty, bready maltiness.

In the flavor, the characteristics noted in the nose are present, with the hops perhaps a little bit more forward than they were in the nose. The taste can be described as lightly floral and lightly bready, very easy drinking.

I've heard that this is brewed to be deliberately a bit flat to be closer to a cask experience. I have to say that, while the carbonation is noticeably low, the mouth feel is almost creamy, and the lack of carbonation is not the deal breaker it would be in a lot of other beers.

Although, to my eternal shame, I didn't manage to drink much beer that could be described as traditional British ales while spending a month in the UK in 2001, what I've had and what I've read since then tells me this is a pretty good approximation of an ordinary bitter. It's just kind of ugly looking.

Pour dirty gold, or light dirty amber, in color, off white head that has to be roused with trickle pour or vigorous pour; got some good film retention; it is cloudy but opaque when backlit.

Nose presents itself as mostly doughy lightly toasted bread, grainy, light tea; hops present in a floral sort of way, with stem in tow.

Taste leans more into the hops than the nose would suggest; the malt does hit first but it quickly takes the backseat...malt still comes off doughy and toasted bread; hops are earthy and lightly resiny.

Light body; low, soft and creamy carbonation make this one super smooth, it finishes dry with a hoppy bite that verges on moderate.

Clear dark amber brew with adequate foam in the Stella goblet. Plenty of spritz in the mouth. Pleasant herbal hop aroma with straw. Surprisingly malty tasting with a distinct bitter aftertaste. Flavors of cereal, a hint of lemon, and the increasingly bitter hops. A decent thirst-quenching quaff. From the 500 ml bottle purchased at Central Market in Shoreline. The label warns about pouring all and once, and there is quite a bit of sediment

 

 

Poured from 500mL bottle into a dimpled mug.

Appearance: dark orange hue with a little bit of haze, probably due to bottle conditioning. There's practically no head at all, just a few bubbles; this is not surprising at all for a Machine House beer. They deliver the cask right from the bottle!

Smell: malty and floral, but there's definitely a sense of the bitter hops to come.

Taste: quite malty with a fair dose of bready, biscuity character, and a nice round bitterness to back it all up. A very nice bitter; bracing yet refreshing, and a lot of flavor packed in for 3.8%.

Mouthfeel: medium body with a darn low carbonation. I mean, I know that this is how it is supposed to be served, but I like some creaminess!

Overall: despite its (intentional) flatness, it is still an extremely refreshing and quaffable beer. I could drink rather quite a lot of this.

bottle into glass
No head. Semi clear, medium orange with a hue of gold. Subtle, sweet floral malt aroma. Decent, medium bodied, subtly hopped, malted beer.

I'd had it stored in the fridge, but I took it out to let it approach 'cask' type temperatures before pouring.
Pours the colour of warm honey. Lots of active little bubbles visible on the glass. Small swell of head initially settles down to a very fine velvety looking half moon around the edge. Not 'hazy' as the current trend of beers has claimed the term, but certainly not clear, and five years ago I probably would have referred to it as hazy in appearance.

Nose is initially the golden promise. Rich bready malts with a touch of caramel sweet to them. Earthy grains and subtle earthy/grassy hops.

As you might expect from a 3.8% beer, it is very restrained. It's an interesting contrast, because there are levels of hte flavour that are pretty thin and almost watery, but the body is actually more medium-chewy, and there's certainly some robustness to elements of the flavour as well. The rich deep malts that dominated the nose are where the thinness comes in, as they almost completely disappear. In contrast, the hops, which were so subtle and understated on the nose, are the primary driver of the flavour here. The bitter grows and is actually pretty damn pronounced, especially without any malt base to counter/support it. The GF described it as tasting like bitter water. At the very least I suppose it's a good showcase for the progress hops themselves. They're earthy and dull-bitter, somewhat grassy, and almost menthol/tarragon kind of twist to it.

As mentioned previously: there's actually a decent amount of body in there for how small it is in other areas, and what initially looked to contain a whole lot of bubbles, settles down to a more appropriate moderate set of pinpricks.

It's too bad, because there's a lot of elements that were gearing up to paint this as something I quite enjoyed, but ultimately it's too one dimensional for me and just doesn't quite hit the spot, personally.

 

Poured into a Samuel Smith pint glass. Pours a slightly hazy, medium coppery amber with little visible carbonation and no head, just a few stray bubbles. Aroma of pale and biscuit malt, light grassy hops, dark fruit; slightly earthy and floral. Flavor is biscuit malt, grassy hops, hay, hints of mint, vague dark fruit, brown bread and bit earthy. Medium bodied with slight creaminess and moderate carbonation, satisfactory despite the near still pour. A classic tasting English bitter with authentic malt and hop character. The carbonation is somewhat low, but in style. Really nice depth of malt flavor considering the low ABV. It's nice to revisit the old English styles every once in a while and Machine House presents them very nicely.