Casco Bay Winter Ale (Old Port Ale)

Brewed by Casco Bay Brewing (Shipyard Brewing Co.)
Style: English Strong Ale
Portland, Maine USA

Bottle: poured amber with a good sized beige head. Big malt/hop aroma, like a barleywine-lite. That aroma seems to disappear once you taste it. Oh sure, it’s there for a second and then gone. Zoom...gone. I feel like this is half a beer. Great in the beginning and lousy in the middle and end, kind of like the movie Crimson Tide.

2004 bottle. Deep cola-chocolate brown color with some tan-garnet highlights on the edges, seemingly opaque, but it must just be very dark, because there is no trace of any sediment in the bottle. Moderate yellow-flecked white head and a persistent carbonation. Aroma smells of English yeast fighting to emerge from the heavy hops aroma. Bitter, dry and astringent smelling, with some dry notes of ash and roast. Flavor starts out, as expected, quite hoppy, with some decent fruit notes from the yeast, but otherwise it’s just a bitter ride to the end. Filtered and pasteurised tasting, it has just a touch of roast, too much hops bitterness with no balance from any malt of which to speak. Medium bodied, slightly syrupy at times. I’m so sick of these lame, cookie cutter American brewed "Winter Ales". This is one of the most boring beers I’ve had in a long time. Little to no complexity, very hard tasting as Per notes. No life in this. Poured most of it out.

Bottled. Clear ruby, small head. Roasty, raisiny grapefruit aroma. Sweet and very hoppy with clean, hard mouthfeel and notes of lychee. Hard, bitter finish. Simplistic, but fairly pleasant.

Mostly clear medium brown body. Wispy off-white head that sticks around and leaves behind nice glass glace. The aroma is loaded with soft tobacco, light raisins and hints of caramel. The aroma is pretty light overall. The flavor is has more tobacco then the aroma along with light alcohol and sweetness. Medium bitter throughout. THe body is medium and a tad watery. Alcohol burn is slight. A nice drinkable ESA.

(Bottle, best by 4/25/05) Quite small tan head atop a clear nut brown body. Aroma is medium sweet, caramel, nutty, some plum, tobacco, light metallic. Taste is medium sweet, tobacco, some caramel, light chocolate, dark fruit. Medium body, alcohol well hidden, light acidity, quite drinkable.

The beer poured out reddish amber with a thin head, and gave the impression of a weak barleywine. The aroma was piney hops and perfumey alcohol. The taste was somewhat weak with the malt sweetness being overcome by the leafy hops. Some rubbery and wet paper off flavors were poking through the relatively plain malt base. The mouthfeel was just a bit thinner than I would have preferred. Although this is a beer of a decent strength, there was very little alcohol burn or prickliness. Aftertaste was clean, but unspectacular, which is what I would say about this beer overall as well.

Pours mahogany with a decent tan head that lasted about a minute. Malty aroma with just a tiny hint of spice. Malt taste fades to light hops. Crisp with a spice finish.

dark red color, thing head that lasts all the way to the bottom. a nice tasting beer, generously hopped and malty tasting. smells sweet, and has a nice sweet aftertaste. this is another good beer from these guys, damn i need to move to maine i think. a very good beer.