Penobscot Bay Brewery: Old Factory Whistle Scottish Ale

So I know it's a little boring, but I'm reviewing beers from the same brewery in back to back weeks. In last weeks review, I gave their only other beer a simple 2. This week, well this week was better, but not ticker tape parade better.

Penobscot Bay Brewery's Old Factory Whistle Scottish Ale came in a 22oz bottle (as did it's brother beer, the blonde ale) and when poured into a Sam Adams glass produced a rather thick head. The beer itself poured cloudy, but quickly cleared up into a dark reddish brown color. I didn't immediately notice a whole lot of aroma to it though.

Normally, I'm a fan of a scottish ale, but this one was just kind of there. The first sip wasn't all that appealing to me, but after that the beer went down quite easily. Carmel seemed to be the predominant flavor, and I think it's abundance caught me off guard. After adjusting to that first sip, I rather enjoyed the rest of the beer. I'm going to give this one a middle of the road 2.5, but I'm reserving the right to review it again at a later date. It just wasn't what I was expecting and I think that threw me off a little. Methinks that next time I'm in Maine, I'll pick some up for my fellow Beer Crusaders to try, as I'd love to hear their opinions..

Penobscot Bay Brewery: Whig Street Blonde Ale

Who out there loves a good blond? Me? I've always been a brunette kind of guy, and the Whig Street Blonde Ale kept true to my policy.

I'm not a huge fan of blonde ales, mostly because I haven't found one that totally tickled my taste buds. Most, in my experience, tend to be decent, but not exactly the most flavorful beer in the world. This beer poured a decent clearish amber color with little head. It went down smooth (as most blondes do), but there really wasn't much too it (another trait of the blonde). It was very drinkable, but not something I'm going to seek out. Mostly, I see this beer as a warm summer afternoon drink.

This would normally be the spot where I give you the alcohol content, but its neither on the bottle, nor on the website. I can tell you though, I had two glasses in one night, and my lightweight self didn't feel a thing. I'm going to guess it's somewhere in the high 4%abv. Not that it was a bad beer, but it just really didn't do anything for me, so I'm going to have to give it a rather mundane 2.