McNeills Firehouse Amber

Brewed by McNeills Brewery
Style: Amber Ale
Brattleboro, Vermont USA

My my, I do like the McNeill’s brews. Had a friend bring back a whole case of McNeill’s selections. Deep ruby, brown color. Floral, fruity aroma. Nutty, caramel malt flavor, with a nice hoppy counterpoint. Love the bitterness. Excellent balance. Might have to crack open another. Cheers!

Thin frothy head. Creamy on top. Low carbonation. Nice hoppy aroma. Citrus, caramel and malts. Color is a dark orange/amber. Flavor is smooth and malty with a bit of roasted grains and more hops. Not complex but just very good. Nice long roasted finish. Slight hop bitterness. Very well balanced brew. I really like this stuff!

Cloudy amber color, medium off-white head. Aroma of caramel malt and pepper. Well-balanced flavor of caramel malt and pepper. Full body, creamy texture, soft carbonation. It would need more fire to be better.

Strong fruity hop aroma with some underlying caramel malty character. Clear copper coloured body with decent tan head that recedes to cover. Grapefruit hop flavour and mild butterscotch diacetyl. Creamy, smooth texture with mild effervescence. Bottle enjoyed with Enkerli and others.

2004 bomber. Pours a vibrant reddish-amber with a big off-white foamy head. Huge fruity aroma, tons of yeast, apples, raspberries, plums, nectarines, strawberries. Wow. Lightly dry toasted malt. Little sweetness. Flavor seems to echo the aroma. There is a hugely dry yeast presence adding a spectacular amount of fruity ester characteristics. The dry toasted malt seems to only make this more papery/astringent and dry. I appreciate that this is high quality stuff, bottle conditioned and all, but it just needs more sweetness and body. The fruitiness gets boring as I finish off the 22. Highly floral bitterness, good zesty carbonation and smooth medium body as typical.

Poured a reddish copper color with a small bubbly off white head and no real lacing. Aroma is full of floral and citrus hops, quite nice. More bitter hops than malts here, which is a nice change. Enjoyable.

Bottle - Pours a very dark brown/amber with a foamy light tan head. Aroma is of citrus/grapefruit hops and some malty sweetness. Floral hints as well. Flavor is definitely full of hops; both citrus/grapefruit and quite floral. Good amount of hop bitterness along with some hop sweetness, particularly in the finish. Finish is fairly long and full of floral hoppiness. Good stuff...

Very malty, and yes, citrusy, and at the end of the long flavor was a wonderful flower petal sweet bitterness a little like the pale ale from Tuckermans. Very good. Thanks, Barry. I really think McNeills is underrated on this site, even if they crack the top 50 they would still be.