Clarkvv (16523) reviewed Cornholio from Marshall Wharf Brewing Company 10 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
The town of Belfast hosts their Celtic Festival every year in mid-July and this is brewed [almost] every year for it. The last one I had was the most recent batch, Summer 2014
Bright garnet-peach mix of warm hues with an off-white head perched atop, showing moderate retention. High clarity.
Fruity hop bouquet to the nose, with very light melonskins, buttercream (not diacetyl) malt sweetness and a pinch of crystal malt (iced tea, red berries). It’s certainly interesting and aromatic for a small beer. No alcohol or flaws.
The flavor is startlingly delicious and deep. Wonderfully extracted maltiness shows a depth of richness that you would never guess from a low gravity session beer. The attenuation is high, as well, with fruity and lightly spicy hops adding a mild bitterness to the finish, clearing the palate. Ample carbonation and enough softness to the palate to counteract the crystal malt. Wonderfully drinkable. If only the rest of the English-style breweries in Maine knew how to brew English-style beer....
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
45 Cream Ale
Funny story here, my mom (who is about as far from a beer drinker as you can get) went here for dinner and without looking too closely at the descriptions, I suggested she get the cream ale, expecting it to be a 4-5%, lighter, neutral-tasting beer. Well, it is surprisingly light with very little hop influence (touch of spiciness) and a creamy, soft texture on account of the wonderfully extracted maltiness (yet remains medium-bodied on account of the good attenuation). Anyways, fast forward a half an hour and my mom had to cut the meal short to leave. I hadn’t realized until too late this was 8+% abv! Haha, quite the sneaky beer, but very delicious and drinkable. Light gold body has a touch of chill haze and plentiful white head atop.
Draught at 3 Tides, Summer 2014.
46 Cream Ale, on Nitro 7/17/15, at 3 Tides.
Yikes, well this was an extremely different beast on nitro (as most beers often are). Suffice to say, if you see this on nitro, you should probably pass. All of the crisp, grainy goodness of a lager, replete with a ton of booze, treated to the wet, loose, watery texture of a nitro beer. About as non-synergistic as I could imagine, and extremely, extremely difficult to drink. Perhaps if there was some more hop bitterness? Even then, the grainy malt bill and high alcohol just wash about in the loose bubbled nitrogenation. The creaminess is lost to the high attenuation and it’s much like a mouthfeel of boozy, soaked grains. I’ll keep the rating for the C02 version, as that’s a great beer. The nitro version would be sub 2’s.....
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
Draught at 3 Tides, early Fall 2014
Clear, glassy garnet with lighter auburn tints and a light beige head that is small and well-retained.
At 7% this is definitely on the lighter side for a double IPA, but the brewer describes it as an Imperial Red Ale. Citrus and plentiful fruits in the nose are balanced by a vanilla/toffee maltiness with no alcohol or acidity from the hops. Hop aroma is medium, this isn’t a "dank" or "lush" IPA nose, but the marmalade and even light floral aromatics are fresh and interesting. Not just your usual tropical fruit/citrus/pine that seems to be ubiquitous now. No booziness or flaws in the nose.
Spicy and with some definite crystal malt "iced tea"-like flavors, though here there is a healthy dose of dry toffee and light honey to help soften the mouthfeel, while juicy citrus and spicy/floral hop notes are felt on the end. Nothing crazy but solid and drinkable as always.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
Draught at 3 Tides, since debut and most recently on 5/16/15
Deep ashen-tinged cola-ebony body has a medium-high clarity and a small beige head that shows medium-low to low retention.
Subtle, inky smokiness in the nose is certainly no Schlenkerla. Much more of an ashen, tobacco and old campfire smokiness. Peppery phenols and balancing caramel maltiness still leaves the beer on the dry side. No alcohol or flaws in it.
Smokiness begins slow but builds up on the palate, hand-in-hand with moderate caramel sweetness, as well as light prunes and raisins. Unfortunately, as Martin mentions, the beer is a bit prone to what he calls excessive "grassiness". I generally refer to it as excessive vinousness/acidity, but it’s here as well as in a handful of their stouts (Oatmeal, Pemaquid, etc...). As Martin points out, it works to a varying degree, but here, with the already dry campfire and ash-like smokiness, I think it works less well. That said, there is still a good maltiness to this adding sweet raisin-caramel flavors, but it’s just a bit too fatiguing to drink much more than a pint. Oily texture with ample carbonation and no flaws/alcohol noted.
Upon further samples in 2016, I think either I’m misremembering, or it’s become maltier and less smoky. Still a nice soft, campfire-like smokiness and plentiful malt for balance, this has actually become one of my go-to beers here. Raisins, plum, caramel and honey with easygoing yet enjoyably flavorful smoke character. Rating is for this sample.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
Draught snifter at 3 Tides, 5/16/15
Small, neat beige head shows moderate retention atop a clear mahogany body with auburn tints.
Leave it to these guys to really nail the barrel aged scotch/old ales. I’ve had a few versions of barrel aged macfindlay and I think I tried a bourbon Chaos. That being said, I really think most brewers don’t do a good job barrel aging beers in 1st and 2nd generation barrels. It’s always just a mouthful of the liquor with the beer severely drowned out. Once in a while you find the occasional beer that really nails it, using the barrel to produce one flavor that dosent dominate the beer, but adds to the complexity, still allowing the malt/yeast/hops to do their thing. But by and large, the extra price and small sample size that these types of beer command makes me stay away from them; just been burned too many times.
Ahem, so after my treatise on 1st/2nd generation barrel-aged beers, they really killed this one. It’s got a little more bourbon character than I would prefer, but not by much, and I also prefer probably quite a bit less than most people. It’s there in the nose and flavor, nutty, woody, a touch phenolic, but not grainy, overly tannic or alcoholic. The flavor is suited best, with ample malts mixing to provide a maple-meets-raisin-meets-wood tannin that helps keep the palate dry, while allowing the MW always-wonderfully-extracted maltiness to balance the beer. Lighter and fruitier than many old ales (though they come in all shapes and sizes), this one takes more of a fruity, lighter bodied Gales-like character, though there’s still plentiful malt to balance, as mentioned. Soft, nearly creamy body has some traces of crystal malt, with no actual booziness or any flaws.
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
Draught at 3 Tides, 5/16/15
Light auburn-amber body is topped by a small but dense, off-white head that is very well-retained.
Sweet malts and fruity yeast in the nose are dominant, while some lightly spicy hop notes slowly interject themselves as the beer warms. Vanilla, honey, light caramel and plentiful red fruits are all true-to-style though MW’s house yeast is so clean that you don’t get any of the nuanced character that the beers of some of the small British brewery’s have. No alcohol noted, no flaws.
Sweet, initially, with a wash of toffee and rich honey over the palate producing an almost sticky texture (importantly, not syrupy). Slight nuttiness is noted as well as spicy and floral hops, but it’s mostly a malt show here. Richly extracted toffee, plum, raisin and caramel notes, all to varying degree dance on the palate, and with the characteristic that makes this brewery stand apart from so many other malt-forward breweries, the finish dries out perfectly and leaves the palate clear and ready for more. No alcohol, flaws. Still, perhaps a touch sweet overall, for my tastes.
Clarkvv (16523) reviewed Old No. 62 from Marshall Wharf Brewing Company 10 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 8.5
On draught at Marshall Wharf, 5/16/15
Dark cola-tinted black beer has an initial dark tan head that shows low retention. Clarity seems high, as with all of their beers; they do a great job with conditioning (and obviously their yeast is pretty flocculent).
The nose dosent prepare for the flavor, but certainly is still enjoyable, throwing off notes of chocolate, licorice, brown sugar and old raisins. Little bit of brown bread crustiness in there, but it’s mostly just sweet, rich, succulent malt and very light roastiness (more of a creme brulee-type aroma than a purely coffee one). No alcohol whatsoever noted in the nose.
Rich, well-extracted and attenuated malts convey light dark chocolate mixing with sweet caramel, while burnt raisins add a lightly bitter/vinous effect. Salty vanilla-tinged caramel emerges as a note, with liqueur-like brown sugared sweetness as well. For as sweet as that all sounds, the beer is neither sweet, nor syrupy. It dries out wonderfully on the finish, with more notes of roast and light raisin. Just a symphony of dark flavors, yet so well-removed from "Just another strong stout". Which I very much appreciate. No alcohol noted, though it probably helps balance the malts somewhat. Maybe a dusting of spicy hoppiness, with a slick-to-creamy texture and ample carbonation. Fantastic and shockingly drinkable.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
Closest thing I had to a thistle was a pilsener. I did a short fast pour to open up the bottom and slowed to even out and hoped to capture what I needed to reinvent a thistle.
Here’s the rest.
The appearance was a glossy yet transparent bronzed brown to amber color with a two finger white foamy head that dissipated within less than a minute. Light lacing graced the sides in a messy sort of way.
The smell had a multitude of things going on, light apple with a quick smoke entering and leaving running amok, (what does seaweed smell like? beats me, but there’s something grassy/woody-ish - assuming that’s the sea weed, I guess).
The taste takes that apple flavoring and adds the smoke to balance, sweet brown sugar flares out to enliven and lead to a dry smoky aftertaste with no finish.
On the palate, this one sits fairly dry and about medium bodied. Smoky dry lingering woody/grassiness rolls over my tongue.
Overall, I say this was a decent Scotch ale, if I have again, I’d have in a thistle without experimental pours.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5
16 oz. can thanks to Willrunforbeer. Damn nice presentation with a thick foamy tan head that laces the glass. Aroma is very nice as well, deep roasted malt, chocolate and light salty brine, very pleasing.
The flavor of a 5 % stout is well above average. I can appreciate that as a novice homebrewer. Nice level of roast, soft chocolate and that nine comes in the finish. There is also a hop bitterness in here as well. If you are in Maine and can get this fresh, do it!
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Can from the Bier Cellar Solid black color with a decent sized long lasting tan head. Chocolate and coffee with hints of vanilla and light fruit. Pretty tasty stuff.