Smuttynose Shoals Pale Ale

Brewed by Smuttynose Brewing Company
Style: English Pale Ale
Portsmouth, New Hampshire USA

Serve in English pint

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Bottle. Amber with an off white head that fades but laces a bit. Aroma is earthy and fruity with marmalade and peach. Medium bodied, moderate carbonation. Rich but not very sweet bread crusts, some stone fruit, insistent citrus flavours leading into a long, firm bitter finish. Some pepper at the end. This is a couple of months out of date but is more than fine. Right up my street.

Pours orange amber with a thin wispy off-white head. Notes of sweet malt, bright hop resin, citrus, and pale malt. Medium bodied, moderately resinous with lush carbonation.

12oz bottle. Pours a cloudy deep orange with one finger of white head. Aroma is lots of hops, very earthy with some pine. Taste is earthy pine, some citrus and decent amount of bitterness.

Good ale, pale but nothing special. Label is even boring by Smuttynose standards. Better than average beer, but overpriced.

Pours deep copper, not quite clear with one finger of creamy head that faded to a thin skin on top. Average lace. Darker than most pale ales the nose is clean and simple. Some hay, grass, earthy with an undertone of citrus. Malt is strong and rich, carmel sweet, cracker and toasted bread. Taste is big malt and hop bitter. Malt is toasty, bready biscuit and robust leaving the sugary sweetness behind in the nose. Hops stand up slick and resiny. There’s a kind of salty taste as well. Lingers dry with a metallic aftertaste and a bitter mouth coating. This is a heavy and full bodied pale ale whose bitterness is not for the weak. Drinks more and more bitter. I actually gave up.

Bottle. Hazelnut brown with a small white head that leaves some lacing. Aroma is caramel, light toffee, bread, nuts, fruity hops. Taste is light/medium sweet and medium bitter. Medium body, oily/watery texture, medium carbonation. Dry and medium+ bitter and a bit astringent finish.

Copper. Creamy white head with some sticky lace. Aroma is malty, caramel, hoppy (little pine, little grapefruit but not overpowering), earthy. Flavor is sweet and a little fruity and caramely initially, then malty, then hop finish. Lasting bitter finish. Medium body. Nice beer..

Bottle. Nose dry and dusty-yeasty with light dank hops. Orange body with a touch of scarlet, lacy head is a rocky beige. Beautiful tangy fruit up front, a little jammy fruit in the middle, orange peel explosion with light bitterness and faint yeast, very dry, small mineral component, super crisp with a papery component and really reminds of a lager. Well made and tasty, but I think I’d like a fresher one for a re-rate.

UPDATED: FEB 17, 2013 Attractive hazy copper with lots of lace. Smells of orange and malt. Tastes fairly hoppy, also citrusy with a small bitter aftertaste. Really quite nice.

355ml bottle. Copper with a fluffy white head. Smells grassy, maybe even like freshly cut grass. Malt and hops come together on the tongue to create a fruit cake-like taste. The taste approaches raisins, figs etc without imitating them. An interesting one for me since it does taste closer to the English beer I know than most US brews but it seems to retain an American character. Even past it’s prime (over the best before date) this was drinking nicely.