Gritty McDuffs Maine’s Best IPA

Brewed by Gritty McDuffs
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Portland, Maine USA

Serve in Shaker, Tulip

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355ml bottle. Aroma is sweet and biscuity, with some bitter hops. Taste is dominated by a bitter resin hop, with some sweet caramel malt behind it. Creamy body. Overall, not an especially pleasant bitterness to this one.

A nice orange-red with medium small light tan head. Aroma is sort of hoppy but not overly pleasant with some skunk background. Medium body, some carbonation. Flavor is somewhat sweet and has some nondescript soapy hops and is on the malty side, but comes across as muddled rather than balanced. Not awful but fairly mediocre.

Bottle - dirty gold color with a cream head. Has an earthy hops taste and something a little on the funky side. Medium body and hardly drinkable. If this is Maine’s best IPA then things are pretty bad in Maine.

This is the best Maine made IPA apparently, and given how Shipyard/Sea Dog fare at RB, it’s entirely possible. Amber orange, clear color. Strange malty, resinous, malty almond and sugar aroma...all the Portland area beers have this to some degree. It must be the water. Decently bitter in a non-specific way, and balanced with a good dose of caramel malt. Medium body. Decent IPA, but fairly basic and too sweet.

On tap at Portland brewpub, pours a a clear orangish amber color with a white head that leaves some lace. Smell is of citrus hops. Taste is big on malt up front then the citrus grapefruit and pine tastes come through with a nice bite of hop bitterness.

9th August 2012
GBBF. Light haze on this amber beer. Smooth palate with a little fine carbonation. Quite a sweet IPA this one! The pale malt has a subtle estery note of sweet banana and bubblegum and also some honey. The citrus hop is also quite sweet. Finishes dry. Nice.

This is ok, it’s fine, it’s good, but it’s not the best IPA in Maine or any other state. In general, Gritty’s beers are better at the maltier end of the spectrum, and on tap v. bottled. I’ve only had this one bottled, and it has some good hop flavors, but nothing horribly unique, and it has a relatively strong barley / malt note that some here have described as "buttery"-- I agree it really takes away from the flavor. Perfectly drinkable, but so many good maine beers ahead of this one.

Uploading from Beer Buddy App. Notes from memory. Disappointing. On tap at the tavern it's delicious. Bottling robbed the beef of all it's flavor and charm. Stick to getting it at their brew pub. ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone

Location: 12 oz bottle from a 6 pack, a gift from the in-laws from their recent visit to Maine, I have no idea where it was purchased, 8/29/12, as "Maine’s Best IPA"

Aroma: The aroma is fairly muted, with earth, grapefruit/citrus notes, caramel, and a little butter
Appearance: It pours a caramel-orange color with an inch thick foam of beige colored head
Flavor: The flavor is way too butter heavy, with some bitter hop notes and a little caramel sweetness
Palate: The body is medium, it has a smooth, creamy feel, and a lengthy, dry finish to it
Overall Impression: This one would have been a lot better if it wasn’t for that annoying buttery flavor that pops up. The other components are there, and even sneak out a bit as the beers warms, but they just can’t completely overcome that weird buttery flavor. I’m being a touch repetitive intentionally, because that’s my Maine (pun intended, sorry I couldn’t resist) recollection of this one. Even though it is out of character, I’ll skip the "Maine’s Best IPA" joke. With a little work I could see this one getting better. Maybe one of the 5 remaining bottles will change my mind and force a re-rate?