4.2

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 4 | Flavor - 4 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 4

Draught pint at the Horshoe Pub on 4/22/2006
Strong orange-amber-honey colored, with light red tints and a small, poor-to-moderately retained off-white head, no lacing.
Smells dirty, old, musty and hay-like, with grainy, lightly sourish malts and a dirty yeastiness, with stale dough. Hops show light fruitiness and some grass as well, but there are a jumble of different things going on, malt, yeast, very out-of-sync with the hops.
Flavor is not an improvement. Sourish, lightly astringent breadiness backed by papery-thin grassiness and light, old white dough. Hops bitterness is moderate, but almost no flavor or at least, just an odd, farmy-grassy-sweatiness. Tired yeast, definite diacetyl and a sagging carbonation make me think this has just sat too long, but it’s hard to know for sure as the Horshoe, to my knowledge, keeps their Wachusset beers pretty fresh. Will definitely give it another try at a different location or from a different keg.