Bar Harbor Special Amber Ale

Pours amber with a nice off white head. Smells of caramel, spicy, earthy. Tastes full bodied and sweet with a nice spicy finish.

2008 vintage unnumbered because they grabbed it out of the cellar at the brewery and gave it to me in September with the promise that I would let it age until Christmas. I kept my promise and it is my first beer of 2009. Just a really great amber ale. Malt and sugar play very heavy in the profile, but that is fine with my tastes. Hopefully with their bigger brewery they can brew this more often.

2008 Vintage. Appearance: Pours a hazy, amber body with a thin, wispy, white head. Smell: Sweet-smelling, malt-driven aroma of caramel squares with accompanying fruit notes. Taste: Chewy caramel maltiness along with tastes of honey candy and sugar-crusted apricots and pears. There’s never much of a showing of hops or bitterness and they struggle to provide balance. Finishes as sweet and fruity as it began. Mouthfeel: Medium-plus body. Medium carbonation. Drinkability: A fine, malt-forward amber ale. So yeah, it’s worth a try.

22oz bottle, Vintage 2008. Deep amber, off-white head. Aroma of sweet caramel, sugar, toffee. Floral nose, nice hop. Flavor of sweet malt. Very well balanced. Nice calming hop bitterness. I’d love to brew this one at home. Easy drinking.

From a 22oz bottle - Pours a somewhat cloudy orange/red color with small quickly dissipating head. Below average carbonation. Smells super sweet with an excellent balance between the hops and malt. First sip is very mild but extremely tasty. Great and welcomed bitter finish. Medium light bodied. A very nice amber.

Clear copper with white head. Aroma is somewhat perfumy and piney. Toffee-heavy flavor at first then comes notes of pine, some orange and a little wood. Ample bitterness. Robust/full-flavored. Full, round body with moderate carbonation. Solid.

2008 bottling. 22oz bottle, purchased at the brewery. Pours deep amber, capped with a moderate-sized beige head. Aroma is primarily malt, with some grapefruit and caramel. Flavor is on the sweet side, with caramel malt and honey up front, which are gradually joined by piney hops. Hops linger on the palate. Very smooth mouthfeel. Not bad, but too sweet for my palate.

2008 vintage 22 0z bomber poured into my pint glass produced a good two fingers worth of head that turned to a thick lace. The body of the brew was a great amber color. The aromas of hops were the first thing to hit me. Followed by a nice biscuits and caramel malts smell Flavors are toward the sweet side caramel malt is upfront but there is a slight bitter finish. Really more of a barley wine feel to this brew. A medium mouthfeel and a good amount of carbonation The drinkability was good on this but the bomber was enough for one sitting. A little sweet for me.