10th Anniversary Special Bitter
Machine House Brewery

Beautiful copper pour. More crisp than clear. Nice little khaki head that stays as a fuzzcap leaving lovely lacing down the glass.

Nose is inviting with lots of caramel, some rye bread, a touch of molasses, and then earthy spicy hops with a little bit of grassy thrown in as well.

Flavour leads in with a bit of a caramel sweet kiss, then turns pretty dry and bitter pretty quick. There's a brief bridge of brown bread between these bits, but it ultimately commits to the bitterness which has pithy elements as well as earthy herbacious pine.

Very light bordering on watery, with an assertive hoppy bitterness that feels Americanized, though I don't actually know whether that's true or not. I just feel like we love our big bitter hops and tend to amplify that profile in general, so that's where my mind goes, because the this ultimately lives up to its namesake flavour.
Overall it's really lovely, though, and I am very glad I grabbed a bottle at the store the other day.

Poured into a Samuel Smith pint glass. Pours a lightly hazy, medium to dark coppery amber with a quarter finger light khaki head with good retention and light lacing. Aroma of biscuit malt, molasses, graham crackers, dates and light grassy hops. Flavor is biscuit malt, graham and dinner crackers, mild lemon citrus, faint mixed fruit and moderate grassy hop bitterness. Medium bodied with light to moderate creaminess. A solid, very English tasting bitter with a malt depth overlapping an ESB profile. Nice complex malt with some fruit notes and somewhat subdued herbal hops that add an appropriate amount of bitterness for the style. Nicely done. Machine House has been doing some great and sometimes historical traditional styles this year and I'm happy to try them.