Pepperwood Best Bitter

Brewed by Pepperwood Bistro Brewery
Style: Bitter
Burlington, Canada

Had both the cask version and the dry hopped version. Scores in the header are for the dry hopped version, with scores for the cask summarized at the end. Both versions are a deep golden with medium-to-low carbonation and a thin white head, with the cask version being slightly hazier (of course) with slightly less carb. Aroma is lots of citrusy hops and hints of grass overtop crusty malts. Cask more bready and the dry-hopped with stronger grapefruit notes. The dry-hopped is sweet and almost honey-like in flavour, has lots of citrus and bready goodness, finishing relatively bitter. A more subdued toastiness, additional fruitiness, woody notes and mild bitterness characterize the cask. Mouthfeel is full and juicy for the dry-hopped, with a light bodied, mineral-like quality being apparent for the cask. Cask: Aroma 7, Appearance 3, Flavour 7, Palate 3, Overall 14

Dry-hopped version. Clear golden with thick white head. Fresh, bright tropical fruit hop aroma with hints of orange and pineapple. Soft, gentle and smooth carbonation. Hop flavors linger with more pine coming out than the nose indicated but also some citrus rind. Smooth, clean, dry, and well-hopped.

Labeled as dry hopped at the brewpub. Orange pour, small white head. Dry hopping evident in aroma - strong hop forward nose. Taste -is unbalanced - strong hops cover up a pretty thin light malty body. I like my hops but by the end this balance did not do it for me. A good effort in need of some tweaking I think.

[1558-20080801] Tap. Dry grassy hops and mature pine needle aroma. Clear, light orange yellow body with a medium-lasting creamy white head. Muted toasted yeast and resin hops flavour. Light-medium body is smooth. Balanced, drinkable.
(@ Pepperwood Bistro; Burlington, ON; called "Dry-Hopped Bitter")

On tap at the Pepperwood. The dry-hopping makes for a nicely balanced bitter with a very good mouth feel. The dryness lingered forever.

Pint had with S.B. Oct 9/06 Pours cloudy copper colour with an offwhite head. The nose is citrusy and slightly spicy. The taste begins with the aforementioned citrus but quickly heads to the hops with a crisp aftertaste. A very nice bitter.

Focus on citrus hops is apparent in the aroma with pleasant underlying malt base. Clear copper coloured body is topped by a low white head that recedes to cover. Decent bitterness is supported well by malty base. Unexciting but very drinkable. Light fruitiness and a hint of butterscotch offer counterpoints. Medium light body with moedium carbonation. Sampled on tap at the brewpub.

Sample at the brewpub with Rastacouere, Olivier_MTL and tiggmtl. All four samples were light amber-blonde, virtually no distinction in color or clarity (fairly clear), just a bit in the heads perhaps...this one has significantly more head and lace...some buttery qualities in the nose don’t really detract from the light aromatic pine needles...body nicely balanced between sweet pale malt and dry floral/sprucy hops...clean and refreshing, probably the best of the four I tried.