Pour is a amber with a large white head. Aroma is sweet sugary malts and not much else. Flavor is more sweet malts with some butterscotch after the swallow. Nothing great but also can’t dog it to bad.

Sampled on draft at the World Beer Festival Richmond, 6/12/10. Pours a clear amber color with a thin head. Decent head retention and lacing. Nutty, malty aroma with resiny hops. The taste is caramel and citrus hops. Medium boded. Fairly average.

bottle - Pours light amber-orange with a small white head. It has a light toasted malt aroma. The flavor is mainly light caramel malt. There’s some very mild hops in there. It’s okay overall but is rather bland.

Draft, however, it was drawn from a Heineken tap marker. The bartender assured me it was Mcsorley’s Irish PA. Mushroom and yeast nose ringed with cherries. Clear rust colored with a thick off-white head, good lace. It tastes quite tart of barley malt and cherries. Soapy finish of grass and cherries. Drinkable and flavorful. No complaints.

Sampled on draft at the Rivertowne Pub this beer poured a medium brown color with a medium sized beige head. The aroma wa ssour, nutty and had a vague cherry presence. The flavor was sour, nutty and had touches of tart cranberry. Odd but not unpleasant fruitiness from the hops. The finish was long, tangy, sour and reminded me again vaguely of cranberries. Ok.

Quickly dissipating head and a dark amber color. Mediocre aroma. Somewhat hoppy. Has a metallic undertone. A little bit of caramel. Not that great. Barely could notice that this is supposed to be an Irish Ale, thought it was a mediocre ESB or EPA.

Bottle. Apart from being pretty honored to be the second rater of this gem, I’m wondering just how many labels Lion will come out with in my lifetime. And second, will they ever find a way to distribute them so more than 50 raters are able to find them? Anyhow, pours a kind of darkish copper with a small fizzy head. Aromas are Irish like. Creamy caramel malt and some tea and kind of metallic hops presences. While flavor isn’t great, it is fairly solid and this would make an acceptable session brew. The iced tea and metal from the nose come through just strong enough to hold it back and I went back and forth on the flavor as a 6 or 7... I arbitrarily put 7 since St. Patty’s is coming up. Mouthfeel is fairly silky and this is a fairly pleasant experience.