Arkenstone Alt
Martha's Exchange

 

On tap at the source today.
Deep copper amber color with a decent sized off white head. Rich caramel and toffee notes with a hint of earth to help balance. Light fruit. Smooth approachable, flavorful ale, my favorite of the day.

A Nice ruby red with a slid white head.

S - Nice rich malt, with a defintite floral hop boquet.

T - Initial hops bite, followed by a smooth caramel maltiness which is finished off by a solid dose of hops. Not IPA type hops, but enough to know it's there. Nice balance through the sip.

M - Lighter in body than I expected. In fairness, my alt experience lies primarily with doublebag which is a double alt creation.

D - Very easy to drink. Nice and refreshing on a hot day!

(0008) Reviewed: 02/11/06.

On-tap, sampled during a pub-crawl that started in MA and went all over the map. Pour temp: unknown, but on the cold side for an ale. Wanted to let it warm up, but I dived right in (staring at that Impy Stout at Nashoba was too much torture; I couldn’t let that happen again…).

Appearance: Thick head (>0.5-inch) that diminished into a ring. Moderate to good lacing. Color: a cloudy, orange-brown.

Smell: Slight piney hops, but mostly malt-sweet, and not overpowering, either. There was not much of a change as the beer warmed to room temp.

Taste: Good balance of hop bitterness and malt. Aftertaste is bitter, with traces of hop fruitiness.

Mouthfeel: On the thin side for this style, but enough latent/residual malt structure to see it through to the end.

Drinkability: Very good drinkability. This is a quaffing beer; good for hot days.

Overall: This seems to be a reasonable representation of the style, with “legs”, albeit on the thin side. I would definitely have it again on my next visit.

This beer pours a macintosh apple red, and leaves a white lace for a head that disappears quickly. The aroma seems off a bit, it has a fruit (grape), sour smell, followed by a bit of smokiness. It starts on the palate with a tart bite, followed by hop bitter flavor and finished with some smokey, tabacco essence, then all of a sudden caramel malt presence can be detected. Not bad for the style, a little weak on the body, I was expecting a little bit more.

Well...pretty amber in color, abit cloudy actually. There was some malty/bready notes in the aroma. Tastewise, that continued in the beer, which lead me to ask: where were the hops? Any hops? This one was big on the malt, low on the hops, and left me scratching my head.

Sampled on-tap at the brewpub.

This altbier poured a cloudy, red-copper color with creamy, tan foam that settled to a thin coat and clung to the glass a little bit. The smell was malt with a touch of caramel. The taste was lightly sweet and almost fruity upfront but this gave way to a dry malty and hoppy flavor. The mouthfeel was dry overall with medium body and modest carbonation. The aftertaste was a lingering dryness with malty and hoppy flavors persisting. This was a nicely drinkable beer.

One of the few Alts attempted around here. Copper color, with a real good, frothy head, and nice lace too! Nose had a good malt, doughy character, with some hops making a cameo, too. Body a touch thin, but still good on the tongue! Starts with a good, bready malt presence, fading into a pleasant hop twang to balance things out. A fairly decent representation of the style, though not entirely close.

overall: 3.95
appearance: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | mouthfeel: 3.5 | drinkability: 4

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