Billiken Bitter Ale
Alaskan Brewing Co.

I had this on-tap in an interesting Dogfish Head pint glass at Special Brews in Lynnwood, WA.

Appearance: medium orange with a moderate haze and a somewhat strong effervescence. Head is a finger of creamy tan foam. Spot-on for the style.

Smell: lightly sweet and bitter aroma. Nice, but a bit low-intensity.

Taste: sweet with a prickly, toasty malt character and some raspy, herbal hops. Bitterness is pretty high. I feel like this flavor profile isn't normally my bag, but that it's working very well here. Rough-around-the-edges, but better than the caramel-sweet examples of the style. Good stuff.

Mouthfeel: medium body with a good carbonation and creaminess. Quite good.

Overall: perhaps nontraditional, but a good example of the style. I like it quite a lot.

 

 

Rough draft. Export series.

Off white beige head. Color is an amber copper.

Flavor reminds me a bit of furious. Very juicy in the hop profile. Grapefruit citrus.
Earthy and floral. Touch of pine. Very hoppy. Malt profile is really nice. A touch of bread and a touch of spice. Reminds me of rye.

Mouthfeel: bitter and smooth. Medium bodied.

Overall, I liked this much more than I expected I would.
Very flavorful and easy to drink. I recommend this one.

Pours a copper brown color with a small white head. smell of citrus malt and baked bread. Taste followed nose with grapefruit and pine malty on the finish. Reminds me of a scotch ale mixed with a pale ale.

A- pours a hazy deep amber, 1" head of foam, good lacing.

S- lots of citrus aromas, close to equal amount of malt...I get notes of bread and caramel. This smells GREAT.

T- starts off hoppy with notes of grapefruit, a bit of pine, moves to an earthy malt character, some bread, not much carmel malt sweetness that I think, would be more to my liking. Especially for the style.

M- medium for both the body and the carbonation.

O- an enjoyable brew but I think a stronger malt profile would give me what I hoped for. Definitely worthy of a try.