Belfast Bay Lobster Ale

Brewed by Shipyard Brewing Company
Style: Amber Ale
Portland, Maine USA

Light amber in color with a small white head. Aroma is of caramel and toasted malt. Flavor is slightly sweet,malty, a touch of hops and finishes with a faint tartness.

12 oz. brown screwtop bottle whose lable would seem to indicate that it is among the last to have been brewed by the Belfast Bay company as opposed to Shipyard...


Surprisingly dark red, almost brown in color with about a finger of off-white head. Smells malty with a hint of hop bitterness. Roasty malt flavor, maybe a hint of skunk unfortunately. Medium to full bodied. Tasty, but it would be better if it didn’t have just that hint of skunk quality to it. It gets better as the skunkiness dissipates somewhat. A pretty decent ale, I’d say. Too bad Shipyard brews it now, only because the character of the ale will probably change a little.

Bottle: Clear orange with a thin white head, caramel and stale hops in the aroma, medium bodied with mellow carbonation, starts and ends very slightly bitter, off-taste at the end.

Cold 12oz bottle: Pours a clear dark amber with barely any bubbles. Aroma and taste are of rich malt, mild hops, caramel and fruit. Moderately bittersweet ending.

Had this beer in brunswick Maine. Is a very tasty red beer. Has a very strong good taste that is not sweet, nor bitter, nor sour....just tasty

Bottle and served in a standard pint glass: Well it didn’t pour red or ruby damnit, more coppery with a small but lasting frothy head and good lace. The aroma displays no Lobster damnit, but does some caramel and biscuity malt, apple and pear, and surprisingly a pils hop character more than an ale esters I was expecting. The taste is quite grassy and herbal with a acidic twang. The malt is a side note on the finish. Rather straight forward brew, not much palate depth. The mouth feel is fizzy and has a dry and metallic finish. An okay brew, quaffable but not much else.

bottle .. copper/amber pour small white head . aroma of malt . smooth medium body, good flavor balance caramel malt and a little hop bitterness . dry and a bit sour ending ..not bad

Bottle (12oz - best before Aug’06). via trade with Fyrecrakker05. Poured bright clear copper with a large lasting foamy-rocky off-white head, decent lacing. Rich aroma of sweet, bread-dough yeast, dairy cream, oily-resiny juniper-like drop herbal hops, rich caramel, almost butterscotch malt character with warming - I"m quite surprised! Taste is more bitter than I expected, still lightly lactic but the caramel seems more artificial, the hops are slightly stale, funky-resiny rather than floral-herbal, and there’s an odd note of wet newsprint and mushrooms, but there’s solid malt here and that saves it. This has a longish finish, with almost harsh hop bitterness at the end - mouthfeel is very thick (I felt it at the back of my throat), almost cloying without being all that sweet, not all that carbonated - and I don’t know if it’s the power of suggestion, but I get some brine in the finish. Unusual - more of a "red" than an amber, not that "red"s a style.