Gritty McDuffs India Pale Ale

Brewed by Gritty McDuffs
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Portland, Maine USA

Cask conditioned - gravity dispense - GBBF 2007. A copper coloured beer with a nice whitish head. The aroma is good hops. Notes of lychee. The taste is hoppy, fruity and malty. Good berry notes. Good alcohol. An all round ngood beer.

Cask@GBBF07. Sweet fruity and floral aroma. Orange brown colored, beige head, good lace. Sweet, fruity, bitter, grassy, nice balance. Sticky mouthfeel with a dry finish. Very nice.

A Mes rate: Gravicask at GBBF. Amber colour with a slight head. Crisp American hops all round. Sharp and moreish. Slight notes of alcohol and malt. Soapy note to the aroma lets it down a little. Pleasant mouthfeel. Not bad at all.

Cask at Great British Beer Festival ’07. This was beautiful. Dark amber with a small off white head. Beguiling and delectable sweet aroma. Taste of grainy malt and vanilla ice cream. Mid bitter. Utterly drinkable. Interesting that people reference this beer as ’very British’: in the opinion of this British drinker, it’s better than anything we’ve got over here.

A nice brew. Light brown and pours with a nice thick head. Lots of hops and spices make this a very nice beer. Goes down smooth with a nice after taste. Recommended but hard to find outside of Maine.

On cask at the Auburn location. Pours a very appitizing orangey color with a thick dense creamy head. Mouthfeel is very smooth, most of the above are the result of it being a cask beer. The flavor wasn’t really all that impressive though, very subdued hop profile, it’s more of an APA than an IPA. Lightly sweet malt flavor with hardly any bitterness. Seems like this beer has had the same issues since 2000 when it was first reviewed.

a true summer aroma.golden, clear, aminimal head, white foam, light sweetness, light body, thin feel, average carbonation,

Draught pint at the brewery on 4/14/06 with SuIIy
A smattering of ivory colored bubbles sit precariously atop a deep bronze-mahogany body, with light golden tints, and a touch of chill haze. Large bubbles stick to the sides of the glass.
The aroms smells of earthy British brown malts, juicy, green hops and fruity yeast esters. Cherries, apples, lemons all mix with the hops to provide a rather lively mix in the nose, however weakened it might be by the high amount of water present in Gritty’s beers. Some toasty caramel-like malts and definite British crystal dryness give it a hard edge, as some buttercream and light acid notes mix unceremoniously on the finish. Juicy, minimally bitter hops fight with crusty, earthy, toasty brown malts to produce a fairly true highly-hopped British bitter-pale ale sort of thing.
The flavor shows plenty of yeasty, mineral-like notes, with tanginess from the hops without much bitterness. Some green, juicy flavors as well, from the hops, complement the pale malt sugars, light caramel touches and hints of buttercream on the end. Though it has a crystal malt flavor (woody, papery, simple sugariness) the texture is not overly hard. Fair amount of wateriness, but I found no flaws. Little bit of funk, even, from Fuggles or Norther Brewer hops? Carbonation is low, alcohol not apparent.