Black Sheep Ale (Bottle)

Brewed by Black Sheep
Style: Bitter
Ripon, England

Serve in English pint

Bottle: Heavy sickly malt of a beer from the early 90’s. Sickly bitter flavour on a one dimensional astringent body. This is the kind of stuff you get in an anonymous hotel-chain bar. Come on Masham, you can do much better.

500 mL bottle at home into a pint glass. Dark amber with a bit of cornet head that needs to settle down. Full bodied fruity aroma. Very bitter, but also has the fruitiness about it, and tastes full bodied too. Just doesn’t seem as good as the cask version. This tastes a lot plainer than it does from the barrel up north. Still its ok for the odd nip.

500ml bottle. Poured a clear golden color with an off-white head. Aroma was sweet malts, touch of yest, hops. Flavor was sweetness followed by bitter hops. Grassy notes, decent.

Bottle, Innisfil, Ontario, Canada. Perhaps I need to give the bitters a rest, because I have not come across one I enjoy. While I don’t hate Black Sheep, I don’t love it, either. Good aroma, though a little skunk to it. Could have been on the shelf a while. Malt and coffee on the nose. Good pour, nice deep amber. so-so head. Very bitter. Hah. Malts, some caramel. Bitter on the back end.

Presentation: It was poured from a brown 500ml bottle into an Imperial Pint glass. Appearance: The body has an orange amber color with a two finger head of light off white foam. The head is slow fading with a wispy thin layer just hanging on. Lacing is spotty and slick. Smell: It has a very light aroma. All I really get is very light bready malt with very mild fruitiness. Taste/Palate: Like the nose it has a light bready malt base with thin fruit notes. This is backed up and balanced by mild citrus and herbal hop bitterness. The light body has soft and mild carbonation and a somewhat thin and almost watery feel. Notes: Overall it goes down easy but the thin feel and flavor are a bit of a let down. I do like what is there but I just want a little more of it.

bottle@home: just like the bottle says, crisp, dry and bittersweet (but mostly bitter), very drinkable, nice, might make a nice session beer, not special but solid

light brown with mild white head. little hop component to the nose, mostly of some toasted malt. solid bitterness prior to low crystal and toasted malt component with a lot of fruity english esters with touches of floral hops. overall a drinkable bitter, that likely tastes entirely different when fresh, but it has the characters of a very good english bitter

500ml Bottle: Aroma of malt, coffee, toffee, toasting, and slight hops. Poured amber in color with a medium-sized, creamy, tan head that lasted throughout. Hazy. Sparkling. Some small particles throughout. Flavor is light to medium sweet. Tastes of malt, hops, diacetyl, light toffee, and caramel. Medium body. Average texture. Average carbonation. Malt, hop, toffee, caramel, and diacetyl finish.