America the Brutiful
Bear Island Brewing Company

Draft at brewery. Bright, clear golden, small filmy head. Aroma leans towards grainy, sweetness comes in at first taste. Some residual dryness, but not as much as in most. Well rounded and easy to drink.

not a brut ipa, a brut style ale, something i expect we see more of moving forward, and maybe even one that will get its own category before long. it done like champagne in that its dry and bubbly, but the base beer is like a kolsch or something yellow and european malty, clean and sort of vinous on the fermentation side, some esters, some pear sort of notes, green apple, but its minimal and mellow, and just a very expressive and dry feeling drinker. neat to taste a beer like this, to see what a brut can be like without the hops, usually its big new school dry hoppy flavors that dominate, so its kind of a cool experiment to use these fermentation techniques without the hops, and i like it quite well. the beer is pretty minimal really though, refreshing and drinkable sure, but not really interesting in any tangible way, as much as i do enjoy drinking on this. i think its neat how clever the beers are in here, thats usually not the old firehouse brewery run by veterans norm, where unnamed reds and patriotic blonde ales and such dominate. here we have ingredients like potatoes and chili peppers, and we have a brut ipa without the hops. smart stuff going on in here, check them out if you havent yet!