REVIEW: Shoreline Brewery Beltane

TL;DR summary : disappointing

Beer style: Scottish Ale

ABV Unknown my guess is around 5%

What I paid: 8.99

How it came (packaging): 22oz bottle

Brewery link: http://shorelinebrewery.com/

About the Beer: Shoreline Brewery is one of the more established brewers in the Northwest Indiana Craft brewing scene. Their brewpub has a cool location in an old power plant, a fun atmosphere, and some decent food. The beer always struck me as unremarkable. Still, I was pleasantly surprised to find a bottle of one of their brews in a shop on my last trip home. I was under the impression they were growler fill only. 

Shoreline doesn’t say much about the beer on their site, other than it’s a Scottish ale, which one could deduce from the bottle. They do claim it won an award at the World Beer Cup, and that it’s always on tap in the resturant. For the record, those awards were silver in 2006 and 2008, and a bronze in 2012.

Color/appearance: Dark amber to brown, creamy head that didn’t last long

Aroma: brown sugar, fruit candy, like a sucker

Mouth feel: light to medium body. Effervescent

Flavor: watery, slightly sweet. hints of caramel and malt in the finish hops add dryness, not bitter 

Notes: Disappointing. Was expecting something more robust. There are so many better examples of this style of beer coming out of that area I don’t know why they bothered.

Summary: Honestly, I don’t see the award. This beer was amateurish and sad, with very little flavor. It almost tasted  and felt to me like when I’ve brewed my own and used too much priming sugar. It just wasn’t very good.

Rating : 1.9

1 – avoid

2 – if it’s the only choice, I guess

3 – a decent beer. Drinkable.

4 – good beer – hard to turn down

5 – great beer - One of my favorites, pour me another.

Style: 2