Black Sheep Ale (Bottle)

Brewed by Black Sheep
Style: Bitter
Ripon, England

Serve in English pint

Frothy pour with lots of lacing and longevity. Nice looking red/gold beer with a light malt and coffee aroma. Great mouth feel. Full body and creamy. Flavor is a little smoky and malty with a nice even bitter finish. I should have grabbed two of these.

A refreshing citrusy bitter with clean dry mouthfeel. A bit watery on the plate though. Also, malt content was lacking in terms of flavour. Overall enjoyable, but there are much better bitters out there.

This is an excellent, very well-balanced, dry, flavourful bitter. It is a copper-amber with a big, thick, dense, of-white head that lasts and slowly reduces to a smaller head that never diminishes, leaving some lacing. The aroma is plums, malt, toasted grain. The taste has definite, moderate bitterness up front but with a sweet balance and the two are very well balanced, leaving the beer with a definite bitterness but one that is nicely backed up and it is very dry and crisp. It tastes of toasted grain with a hint of caramel, the palate is tingly and lively with a long, smooth finish that is neverthless crisp and, as the bottle says, "bittersweet." The finish is clean with a pine bitterness balanced with grain and mild sweetness.

Bottle. I forgotten how good this beer is a true smooth classic English bitter.

Well maybe I got a bad bottle b/c this was by no means good or acceptable. Smelled poorly, tasted poorly, bad mouthfeel. It was like a semi-bad beer and I got the funky one of the batch. A bit of DMS, a bit sour, etc. At least I got a nice bottle to re-use with something worth drinking.

My Bottom Line:
Freshly-baked bread slowly morphs into honey-laced French toast, just before a crisp second half brings in toasted crumbs and supporting earthy hop bitterness. A fresh bottle is a very satisfying quencher; a proverbial liquid bread.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A sheet of foam covers the honeyed blond.
-The pale malts give off beautiful bready allusions.
-The body is well rounded and very healthy.
-Hop bitterness is well positioned but does not balance out more than the ending.

Bottle; best before June ’08.

Light amber yellow color. Thin head that dissipates quickly, but leaves a trace along the top. Malty with grassy/herbal/earthy tones. Aphoristically Englsih. Citrus flavors of orange and lemon. Some peat as well. Bitter dry/finish. Thin but soft mouthfeel.

Pours a nice deep coppery color, with practically no head. Nose is all malty and earthy hops and very nice. Flavor starts out very sweet and maybe a little citrusy, turns malty and maybe a hint smoky or oaky? and then finishes bitter. It’s reasonably thick with low carbonation. A nice brew overall.