McNeills Champ Ale

Brewed by McNeills Brewery
Style: American Pale Ale
Brattleboro, Vermont USA

Bottle courtesy of jwale73. Thanks!
Pours clear golden with a fizzy white head. Smell is dull, old and not very fresh hops. Beginning of a band-aid unpleasantness. Taste is boring, bland lightly bittered hoppiness. Overcarbonated and perhaps the beginning of an infection. I hear McNeill’s has lots of bottling issues, and this must be one example.

Had at the brew pub off tap. This was one of the more complex Ales I have had. I was surprised to read some of the reviews being so harsh on it. It was foamy and froathy with a nice head. The aroma was of fruits, carmel and hops. It was slightly bitter but went down so smooth. One of my favorites I had from them on that day. A real winner in my book.

22 oz bomber from Beertruth, thanks Adam. Pours a clear orange with a huge foamy white head that settles slowly and leaves tons of legs and a nice creamy pool in the middle of my beer. Slightly sweet aroma with notes of tropical fruit, grains, caramel and toffee. Palate is thin to medium bodied with a nice touch of carbonation. Flavor starts off with lots of fruit, towards the middle cereal grains make an apperance and finsihes with slight bitterness. Although smooth and refreshing this beer is just a little to fruity, much like listening to Heavy D.

22 oz bomber from the brewery. Light amber beer. Aroma is lightly orangey and peachy with a strong house yeast sweet estery character. Lightly dusty and orangey with a touch of phenolic character. Peach and orange flavour with a decent balance of fruity grapefruity hops and pale malt. The dustiness is fairly distracting and doesn’t really work in this pale ale. The house character of this yeast just comes across as dirty and it doesn’t really work for me. It’s better obscured in some beers than others, but in this it’s got nowhere to hide.

22 oz. bomber. Poured slightly hazy orangish gold with white head with slight splotches of lacing. Lemony nose. Too thin and watery. Finish is not too bitter and would make this one a pretty nice session APA. Cool bottle artwork.

Sorry guys, you know I love my McNeils but this one really missed the mark. Poured a transparent deep yellow with greenish hues and a very foamy white head. Aroma was subtle, but the hop presence was there. What do you expect from an APA though? Flavor is off, a little stale maybe, but flat and nothing but lemon juice to taste. The finish is watery. Had to pour it out, I couldn’t finish the glass let alone a bottle.

Pours a cloudy orange with a pale white head. Has a definite citrus hop aroma. Orange and lemon with also some biscuit like malts and a malt tang. The flavor is mild and spicy citrus hop flavor. Fruity flavors in addition to orange and lemon hop. Spicy and tangy bitterness, also quite full. The flavors are largely bitter with almost no noticeable sweetness. It seems a bit jumbled and harsh.

Pours amber into a shaker. Off-white head recedes to stay on the surface. Slightly sour caramel with lasting bitter hop finish.