Abita English Bitter

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 5 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Had a glass of this while stopping for a return visit to the brewpub, on a rainy Saturday afternoon.

First impression? "What the heck is Abita doing trying to do an English-style beer?" But then I saw they were also offering a Saison of all things..., so maybe they're simply stretching their wings, so to speak?

A standard Shaker pint glass of this arrived, with very little head of foam on top. And what little foam that was there was soon gone by my second sip. Minimal carbonation, too. I like that they tried to serve this in a pseudo/quasi-Real Ale manner -- but damn-near flat won't win over too many fans on this side of the Atlantic.

Aroma was also a bit lacking, I'm sorry to say -- and a bigger fault for a beer of this style, IMO. In other words, there was little that made this beer appealing in the first stanza.

Much improvement, when it comes to the flavor profile. Whatever hops that were M.I.A. for the aroma were surely arrayed en masse for the bittering and flavoring hop profile. Fairly clean malt profile -- seemed to let the hops take charge, for the most part. No complaints there.

While the mouthfeel would have been improved with some more basic carbonation, it does give this beer a quick-n'-easy "Session Beer" quality. Can easily see pounding down a few these without much effort.

Not very challenging, and only worthwhile for a quick pick-me-up, IMO. I enjoyed this well enough, but I suspect I'm being a bit generous with my scores with this odd-ball from left-field....
//TB