Belfast Bay Lobster Ale

Brewed by Shipyard Brewing Company
Style: Amber Ale
Portland, Maine USA

Bottle: Clear orange with a thin white head, caramel and stale hops in the aroma, medium bodied with mellow carbonation, starts and ends very slightly bitter, off-taste at the end.

Cold 12oz bottle: Pours a clear dark amber with barely any bubbles. Aroma and taste are of rich malt, mild hops, caramel and fruit. Moderately bittersweet ending.

Had this beer in brunswick Maine. Is a very tasty red beer. Has a very strong good taste that is not sweet, nor bitter, nor sour....just tasty

Bottle and served in a standard pint glass: Well it didn’t pour red or ruby damnit, more coppery with a small but lasting frothy head and good lace. The aroma displays no Lobster damnit, but does some caramel and biscuity malt, apple and pear, and surprisingly a pils hop character more than an ale esters I was expecting. The taste is quite grassy and herbal with a acidic twang. The malt is a side note on the finish. Rather straight forward brew, not much palate depth. The mouth feel is fizzy and has a dry and metallic finish. An okay brew, quaffable but not much else.

bottle .. copper/amber pour small white head . aroma of malt . smooth medium body, good flavor balance caramel malt and a little hop bitterness . dry and a bit sour ending ..not bad

Bottle (12oz - best before Aug’06). via trade with Fyrecrakker05. Poured bright clear copper with a large lasting foamy-rocky off-white head, decent lacing. Rich aroma of sweet, bread-dough yeast, dairy cream, oily-resiny juniper-like drop herbal hops, rich caramel, almost butterscotch malt character with warming - I"m quite surprised! Taste is more bitter than I expected, still lightly lactic but the caramel seems more artificial, the hops are slightly stale, funky-resiny rather than floral-herbal, and there’s an odd note of wet newsprint and mushrooms, but there’s solid malt here and that saves it. This has a longish finish, with almost harsh hop bitterness at the end - mouthfeel is very thick (I felt it at the back of my throat), almost cloying without being all that sweet, not all that carbonated - and I don’t know if it’s the power of suggestion, but I get some brine in the finish. Unusual - more of a "red" than an amber, not that "red"s a style.

Any first impressions?
-A luxurious head slowly collapses onto the filtered copper.
-Deeply breaded pils malt aroma recalls the opening of a box of croutons (with a little garlic too?)
-An intriguing, well-rounded caramel, butterscotchy maltiness is nourishing.

What if you dig deeper?
-Citrusy hop flavor roams, and a touch of green hop bitterness rises after the important caramel maltiness.
-Some peachy, papaya-like fruitiness hugs the malt sweetness.
-The fine carbonation serves the malt structure well.
-It doesn’t stand out amidst other well-brewed amber ales/red ales, apart from that hugely bready perfume.

Bottle; best before August 2006.

(Bottle, best before 7/06) Rocky off-white head on clear reddish orange body. Some lacing. Nose is malty sweetness. Mouthfeel smooth. Flavor nicely balanced between hops and malt, with bittering hops fairly upfront. Nice very drinkable beer, would go well indeed with Maine’s most famous crustacean.