Gritty McDuffs Halloween Ale

Brewed by Gritty McDuffs
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Portland, Maine USA

This is a fun beer and one of my seasonal favorites. It pours a medium brown color with a finger of rich frothy head. Sweet malted aroma. Smooth brown sugar and malt taste with subtle hop bracing. Finishes clean with a lingering caramelized malt aftertaste. Gritty’s seasonal brews are typically better than their flagship brews. They must be more willing to take risks with these and plan the others for the uninitiated masses.

From a 12oz bottle, Best Enjoyed Before August 2004 Pours a nice cherry-brown with an off-white head, little lacing. the smell is sweet and hoppy. I kid you not, I smell candy-corn! Taste is light, sweet malt. Hoppy finish. Caramel taste with hints of cider. Body is medium with the hoppy aftertaste. Very drinkable, very good! The bottle has great artwork with the Gritty’s bartender handing his own head across the bar with bats and Halloween colors. Fancy labels tend to make me suspect the beer isn’t that good and this is how they have to market it to sell any. I am wrong in this case. Very good brew. Right up there with the Black Fly Stout as the best Gritty’s products.

Thanks to atpayne for sending me this Maine brew!

Pours an amber body with edges of gold, and it wears a full tan cap. The aroma is dense with cameral malt, and some heartier suggestions of toffee and toasted wheat bread. The flavor starts off semi-sweet but there is a lightly tart note there’re in the finish. There is certainly some English hopps in the finish, woodsy and peppery. A bit fruity with hints of plum, apple, orange zest and pears. The palate is nothing over the top; nevertheless, it is a tasty brew that nicely characterizes the fall season. I would suspect that this beer is best when it is fresh off the Gritty’s house draft lines.

This is a tasty beer. Very nice color, very little head. Nice lacing. It’s not just for Halloween.

Clear brown/amber with tan head. Malty, some sour European style malt and hop aromas are present. A nice sharp bitterness seems to cover the malt that I was expecting. It’s a decent hop bill, but I’m a bit dissapointed in the laco of malt. There is only a little sweet malt, and the finish is quite heavily bitter.

Best by date of April 2005, Sampled December 2004
Pours a pretty red color that is brilliantly clear. It is topped by a fluffy light tan head. The aroma smells of thin grain, a hint of butterscotch, and caramel. The aroma is lightly sweet, yet light and crisp. There seems to be some subtle spicing going on here. Most notably I get some astringency towards the end and in the finish. Perhaps I get some notes of nutmeg. This beer is quite light on the palate. I am not quite sure what to think about this beer. It is quite light and does not have as much flavor as I was expecting. I think that the spices have died down quite a bit, and all that is left is a bit of spicy astringency in the finish.

2004 bottle. Well it pours a dark copper, burgundy brownish color with a rapidly fleeting beige head. Notes of light hops and dry nutty notes. Some yeast as well. Flavor definitely sticks with you; it’s bitter and has a light malt sweetness, but it’s faint and only appears on the finish. Mostly some yeast and lots of hoppiness and spiciness. Medium body, not too much carbonation, but still too filtered. A bit tinny on the end. Could use some more fruitiness from more of an Enlgish yeast apparency, as well as more malt.

October 28th 2005 draught at Grittys in Portland. Moderate amount of beige head atop a filtered deep brownish-ruby body. Smells of sweet malts, toffee, caramel, chocolate. No yeast, barely any hops. Simple texture, with draught carbonation adding most of the mouthfeel, just a light touch of sticky sugars otherwise. Didnt get any alcohol apparency out of this one, but I could see that happening on nitro. Boring and nowhere near close to any malt depth, but not offensive. 6/3/5/3/10

ESB? Works for me. Well made ans easy to drink ale with plenty of pleasant bitterness and a good finish. Easily found on tap through many pubs I poked my head in and enjoyed each time.