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Left Hand Sawtooth Ale

Percentile
67
overall

bottled
common

on tap
common

Broad Distribution
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RatingsAverageScoreABVStyle PctlServe in
6553.21/5.03.21/5.04.75%72.7English pint
Commercial Description:
Sawtooth Ale is an English style Extra Special Bitter. It is an extremely well balanced beer, with significant hop character, medium body, and a maltiness which increases in evidence as the beer warms to its "proper" drinking temperature. . The water used is quite hard, bringing it to near Burton on Trent levels, keeping it true to the style. This gives it the appropriate character and improves the malt extract significantly.
 Most Recent Top Raters Highest Ratings Who's Rated This?  
 michael-pollack (2661), King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, USA
3.2 Aroma Appearance Flavor Palate Overall
5/103/56/103/515/20
Oct 7, 2006  
Draught at Brewery: Aroma of hops, malt, resin, and dough. Poured amber in color. Sma;;, off-white head. Small lacing. Clear. Sparkling. Well balanced malt and hop flavors. Medium sweet & bitter. A little dry. Short finish. Light body. Lively carbonation. Overall, and ok ESB.


 GarrettB (494), Seattle, Washington, USA
2.5 Aroma Appearance Flavor Palate Overall
5/102/54/103/511/20
Oct 5, 2006    Updated: Oct 13, 2007
Sometimes I wonder whether a beer should be praised for having positive qualities, or for lacking negative ones, or maybe a mix of both. I recently tried Left Hand’s Sawtooth Ale, a beer that practically begs the same question. It’s a brew totally lacking in anything meritable, but it keeps abreast of any reprehensible qualities. That said, I think the former is the superior approach – an adventurous search for the exceptional. Though a beer can be leagues ahead of its competitors by removing anything that would be considered detrimental, it also yields an unengaging, sleepy and droll drink; a fate worse than the sink. At least terrible beer attracts conversation, sparks debates and makes some attempt to liven up life. That said, the Sawtooth Ale is horrible. It’s awful. It’s downright boring. The head slinks away shortly after pouring, leaving behind the vestiges of what was already a monotone gray. The color bears the uniform of the common beer grunt: nothing more than a semi-clear amber. The aroma carries malts and a tinge of yeast and, with acute effort, may yield something of a sweet spice. But these flavors are all. The taste follows suite in its unimpressive flavor. It has a fairly toothsome malts element, but it’s alone save for a chemical laden alcohol flavor. That bit of the beer burns on the tongue for awhile and leaves an ugly aftertaste. The composite analysis: sooooooo boring, and I mean every one of those extra o’s. It is a hum-drum beer, and anything like this is bound to keep me apathetic about the whole business of beer until I take a swig of something scintillating again. For that (and only that) I condemn this Sawtooth Ale to the deepest form of my scathing dislike.


 wnhay (722), Princeton, New Jersey, USA
3.3 Aroma Appearance Flavor Palate Overall
6/104/56/103/514/20
Oct 3, 2006  
Bottled. Amber with a thick white head. Descent retention and creaminess. Aroma has citrus, graitfruit and caramel. Taste was well balanced with a good maltiness. Pleasant bitterness. Good session beer.


 MattShizzle (385), Bernville, Pennsylvania, USA
2.8 Aroma Appearance Flavor Palate Overall
5/104/55/103/511/20
Sep 27, 2006  
Bottle - from sampler pack. So-so. Not much flavor. A little bitter, but poor hop flavor.


 henry3r (586), Wichita, Kansas, USA
3.2 Aroma Appearance Flavor Palate Overall
7/103/56/103/513/20
Sep 26, 2006  
The 12 ounce bottle poured a delightfully clear reddish amber beverage with a modest creamy off-white head that was mostly diminishing but left good lacing on the glass. The aroma was well balanced. There was a predominant hop presence with some maltieness detectable underneath. The body was medium with lively carbonation and a smooth crisp, rather dry texture. The flavor started off ... what else ... bitter but not too bitter. A few moments later, a light sour character crept in. This was soon washed over by the pleasant bitterness which then lasted throughout the long finish.


 PhillyBeer2112 (2086), Orange Park, Florida, USA
3.1 Aroma Appearance Flavor Palate Overall
6/103/56/103/513/20
Sep 26, 2006  
On the whole a somewhat boring amber/pale ale. Poured an appealing red-amber, with a good two finger head. Aroma focused toward the malt end, with notes of butterscotch and caramel. Flavor similar, but some spicy flavoring hops are brought out. Although indistinct, they serve the purpose to provide counterpoint to the caramelized malts. Finish just barely bitter, again revealing the malt leaning tendencies of this one. Despite that, the malts are not especially featured, and the beer approaches blandness, definitely boringness.


 Lou18 (1353), West Paterson, New Jersey, USA
3.3 Aroma Appearance Flavor Palate Overall
7/103/56/103/514/20
Sep 20, 2006  
This was a good ESB. Real easy to drink, went down nice, dry bittering finish. Session brew here


 jefcon (999), Arlington, Virginia, USA
2.9 Aroma Appearance Flavor Palate Overall
6/102/57/102/512/20
Sep 16, 2006  
Amber-hued with a little lacing. Aromas are heavy on hopcit. Bitter bite, with a hoppy center and a fading malt finish that’s woodsy and warm. Hops are a bit soapy. Quite "wet" on the finish. There is a bit of mineral in the flavor profile which is kind of nice. Overall, however, not in the class of ESB it aspires to be.



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