John Harvards Bitter Ale

Sampled at Nerax: Poured from the cask with a strong nose of flowers upfront. Sweet fruit candy comes to mind, and butterscotch followed. The taste starts with a zip of bitter hop grapefruit, following by a caramel blast of sweetness, balanced with a sweet tart tangy hop presence.

Tap at Manchester, CT pub. Known as "The Bitter Challenge". 6.0% ABV with a description as "This ESB is a golden/copper colored ale with a medium body with a smooth, spicy hop flavor balanced by a bit of malt sweetness"
*****Crystal malts in the nose with a bit of caramel aroma and some toffee. A bit of grainy hoppiness is present. Transparent amber color with a yellowish head. Start is quite carbonated and rather bitter with grapefruit tones. Mild caramel notes in the middle before finishing with more harsh grapefruit bitterness. Not so smooth.

Cask @ Springfield. Called Best Bitter on the chalk board. Quite cloudy amber/orange w huge white head. Aroma is Belgian yeast, very yeasty, and a sour citrus note in with some dry light malt. Flavor is Belgian yeast, sour, slightly clovey, moderate hops, light dry malt, rather bitter w a nice bitter finish. This was very much like a somewhat funky saison. According to the board it was tapped 2 months ago. Did I get the right beer? Had this not been my last for the session, I would have had more.

Cask version, Deep golden in color with a large white head.Slightly hazey with a fruit and hop aroma,very traditional.hoppy from start to finish, a fantastic session beer.

On-cask at Cambridge location. Served almost piss-warm. A Wonderful, frothy brew! Nice bittering tones, but not sticky on the finish. Too bad I had to rush out to catch the train, but I'll have to get there again soon.