McNeills Alle Tage Altbier

Brewed by McNeills Brewery
Style: Altbier
Brattleboro, Vermont USA

Bottle - Pours a darkish brown-copper in color with very little carbonation or head. Some lingering tannish bubbles. Slightly malty nose with a good bit of flowery hops mixed in. Flavor is mildly of hops and a strong dose of hops. Slight astringency along with the bitter. No citrus to the hop flavor. Finish is dry, bitter and fairly long lasting. An OK beer. I like the hops, but there is little to this beer but the bitterness ... missing some of the hop flavor.

Bottle. Roasty semisweet malts in the nose with maybe a hint of maple in there. Moderately hazy mahogany/amber with an off-white head. Roasty and smooth with vinous notes. Smoked toasty hopped mild bitterness to finish. Slightly thin. Not totally familiar to the style. This stuff is decent.

Pour is a semi-hazy copper with little off white head. Malty aroma, with some alcohol noted also. Sour start with a rush of intense bitterness in the middle with a salty aftertaste. I am not entirely familiar with this style. This is not what I would classify a great beer, however it is certainly not bad.

Poured a hazy prune color with a medium sized off white head, and left nice lacing on the glass. Sweet caramel malt, and lightly hopped aroma. Citrus fruits, very light bitterness and some very mild roasted notes. I really wanted to like this one more than I did. Oh well, can’t win them all, McNeills is a great brewery, and I need more!

Bottle: Pours with absolutely no head (wondering how old my bottle is) to a hazy strawberry red/amber body. Aromas coming out of the glass are caramel, sweet malt, unsweetened chocolate and earthy notes. Wow, taste surprised me a little bit. There’s a great bitter flavor throughout starting with leather to chocolate malt to bitter cocoa to an earthy almost smokey finish. This has a nice light body to it, with just barely enough carbonation to tingle your tongue, but not enough to get in the way of any of the flavors. I really enjoyed this one.

Tangy hoppy aroma with caramel and slight chocolate hints. Cloudy muddy reddish-brown body with no real head. Bitterness is sharp when it initially hits the tongue, and lingers behind on the sides of the tongue. Leaves a tangy resonance behind. Slight sweetness is in initial taste as well. Earthy.

Bitter tangy malt, very earthy, not much fruitiness. Lovely leathery mustiness. Some real iron/blood type noble hop action. Served quite warm after it's near freezing experience, this is best in style for me along with a couple of other mcNeill's. Avoids sweetness at all costs. - alright, as the cougar say, some light choclate, I agree. Biiterly lovely.

Dark copper with a thick tan head. Fresh hoppy aroma has some caramel malt sweetness as well. Almost tastes more like a hoppy amber than an altbier. Finishes dry and bitter, but with some light chocolate notes. Pleasant fresh hoppy body has a touch of sourness, but goes down smooth. Not quite to style, but an enjoyable brew.