McNeills Dead Horse India Pale Ale

Brewed by McNeills Brewery
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Brattleboro, Vermont USA

Cask, poured a cloudy orange brown color with a bubbly off white head and nice lacing on the glass. Nice citrus, and light floral hop aroma. Sticky grapefruit, bittering hops, possibly more grapefruit peel? This was very enjoyable.

Fruity aroma, not totally citrus, but sweet. Sort of like a barleywine. There might be a touch of caramel sweetness in there too. Hazy dark copper color with a frothy off-white head. This guy is quite hoppy throughout. Some bittering to finish. A very nice English IPA. Sometimes you need a break from the West-Coast hops. Well balanced with the malts. Nice.

Bottle...murky copper pour with a medium off white head. Metallic pine aroma with some floral hop hints. Intense hop rush to start, mellowing in the middle and finishing with that lingering grapefruit finish. A little sweetness in the middle, but lots of grapefruit in this puppy. A nice IPA

A well-made IPA. Another fine, fine beer from McNeil’s. Though not as mindblowing as their ESB, this IPA has plenty to keep you coming back. A nice "east coast" IPA in that it’s not shivering with hops and IBUs.. it’s a pale ale, just with a bit of a kick. Well done!

this is a refreshingly original IPA, particularly in it’s unabashed yeastiness. it’s murky with chunks, wisps and arabesques of particulate matter. in terms of color, imagine liquified pennies, blood oranges and creamed tiger skins. my pour --from a bottle --featured dense langourous foam, animal cracker beige, with runny and rapidly modulating lace. true, the hops are but ’pale ale’ in thier restrained potency, but the aroma is so artfully augmented with dough, vanilla and orange blossom that the comparitively delicate suggestion of ruby grapefruit rind is a concommitant, rather than overpowering constituent. on the tongue, the butterfly soft carbonation and creamy orange sherbert flavor reigns but briefly before the hops bite deep into the tastebuds. doughy cedar malts and caramel meet melted ice cream and tangerine peel hops-- and each gets wildly naked in the insuing unbridled animal magnitism. sweetness and bitterness are bound so tightly that each coos with carnal, lazy contentment-- and come to think of it, so did i.

Powerfull hops aroma. A flavor of still powerfull hops follwed by a nice caramel, malty flavor.

Huge fluffy, rocky head above a slightly hazy golden copper body. A wonderful, hoppy aroma that is more closely aligned with the English tradition of the style than to the American PNW style. The hops are by no means weak, however, the pine and citrus is not so intense. More floral and slightly aromatic perfume elements dominate. A moderate body that gives enough strength to handle the strong hoppiness. Chewy, bready malts dominate with hints of sweet caramel and light nuttiness lying underneath. Good flavors, strong aroma and a nice balanced bitter finish. A wonderfully tasty IPA.

Whats with the carbonation of this beer. A massive skyscraper tall, lightly yellowish crown sits like a fine shaving cream foam that takes literally forever and a day to settle, I mean come on! I would like to drink this without foam going up my nose. The color itself is of coppery amber and syrupy thick looking with major carbonation bubbles going strong within. Aroma has a terrific dry cedar pine nose upfront, great hop complexity to it throughout with dry floralness and some finer alpha acid resin that sits like the tiny yellow pollen dust within the hop cones has been dusted across the top. Some wiffs seem stronger then others. Nothin' but hoppy dry, woody, and resin filled goodness here! Well balanced taste with dry and toasty bready malts really making a good presense. Kinda earthy and roasty too. Crisp, clean, smooth and even; the hops aren't as dominant as you'd think given what the smell eludes too. Its not a hop monster by any means, its actually a bit tame on the hop scale and the bitterness. There's some slight dry pineyness thats cedar-like with some nudges of resin pop towards the finish but doesn't linger long nor strong and without alot of bite, which is actually kinda nice. Much more drinkable in that regards! Its got that earthy, roasted edge thats real nice to behold; and with some milder hop tones that don't over do it. Nice effects across the palate. Some bubble gum notes show very late underneath. Feel is medium bodied, slighly fluffy with a favorable carbonation at first but I detect flatness in a couple areas which I find odd cuz every time I try to pour more from the bomber into my glass the head just keeps growing fast and wild. A very nice IPA indeed, the nose is great, and the milder hop tones and overall body makes this quite easy to drink. If it weren't for that damn foamy head getting in the way nearly every sip I would have enjoyed it more thoroughly; still, noteably good either way ya drink it.