12 oz stubbie. $1.50 from Green’s, Buford Highway, Atlanta, GA, USA. On their singles shelf; Adam happened to say he was “unimpresed” with this. We’ll see. “Brewed in the English Style”, whatever THAT means!
In general, Pennichuck’s entry to the Atlanta market has been really quite underwhelming. I’m a huge fan of simple beers, but simple is NOT an excuse for a lucklustre quality.
WOW – this is an EXTRAORDINARY color and pour. A dark, dark, dark brown that is approaching black and reminds me of an English mild. Head is high and tight with a tan color and good lace. Dense.
Nose and tastes give a less impressive (but stil solid) experience with malts taking the lead. The beer seems to lack the classic dry character of an Irish Red and plenty of sweet malts keep coming through including in the sftertaste. Smooth finish and decent beer that could (just) be a sessionable candidate.
The preponderance of malt gives this a much greater brown ale presence than perhaps anyone intended, but if I were doing a blind taste I would say this is closer to a malty brown ale than anything “red”. Not especially dry and the sweet malts do tend to come through.
Best Pennichuck effort that I’ve had so far. Not saying a great deal, but nevertheless true. Much work to be done by this brewery in my eyes, but at least a little faith has been restored.