Best Bitter
Dutchess Ales

Served from a cask (opened Saturday, poured Wednesday) into a 10 oz goblet at the Ginger Man in Manhattan.
A: Pours a very hazy amber-brown color with ruddy highlights, a one to two finger, foamy, wheat to tan head, solid retention (certainly more than a cap), and modest, spotty lacing.
S: Tangy/tart almost as if getting a whiff of lactate. Aromas of caramel >> molasses, cocoa, honey, and cherry wood.
T: Semisweet to sweet. Palate basically follows the nose, but citrus and pitted fruit a tad more represented. Solid bitterness early, but fades a bit.
M: Medium bodied with a quite remarkable amount of effervescence for a cask ale. Drinks well.
O: Complex and fun. I liked it so much I had two.

 

Had this beer on cask at Gingerman. I understand what cask should be like quite well and have drank more than my fair share of ESB both here and abroad. This beer is undrinkable, underhopped and way under-attenuated. At 3.9% I can’t tell if this was deliberate or a mistake in the brewing process but you might as well be drinking wort.

Cask at Barcade, Brooklyn, NY

A: The beer is quite hazy amber in color with some yellowish hues. It poured with a finger high dark beige head that died down and left a thick coating of bubbles on surface and down the sides of the glass.
S: Light to moderate aromas of toasted malts are present in the nose along with hints of honeysuckle.
T: The taste has flavors of biscuit and toasted malts with notes of honeysuckle and a bit of sweetness and tangerine citrus.
M: It feels medium-bodied and a little smooth on the palate with a moderate amount of carbonation.
O: This beer has lots of malty flavors but drinks very easily and has just enough underlying hops to help balance things out.

Serving type: cask