Bar Harbor Thunder Hole Ale

Bar Harbor Brewing Co.
Bar Harbor, ME

Available: ME

This English brown ale is one of five styles brewed at this two-person “cottage brewery” (three-person in high season) by Alewife Pond in Bar Harbor.

ABV: 4.8
ABW: 3.6
Color: n/a
Bitterness: n/a
Original gravity: 1050

Lovely mahogany color with shimmering red highlights and good depth. Head is textbook: irregular and creamy, the color of eggshells contrasting with the amber beer. Nose of malt and yeast. Flavor is clean, a little on the light side, but tasty, with good malt and hop character. The finish is dry and lingering. Recommended with wood-fired pizza, wok-fried fish and whole wheat calzone.
- Charles Finkel

Nut brown color with an appealing creamy head. Chocolate and caramel in the aroma is very inviting. Excellent crisp black malt character supporting the more upfront sweetness of caramel and exotic chocolate. Hop flavor is perfect for this extraordinarily balanced, mildly bittersweet brown ale. An American classic brewed perfectly.
- Charlie Papazian

Bar Harbor Brewing Thunder Hole Ale A bottle-fermented brown ale with a superb russet color like autumn leaves. The aroma is complex and enticing, with a big malt note balanced by tart hops and with subsidiary notes of vanilla and fresh wood. The hops begin to dominate on the palate, though creamy malt is still present, but the finish is proudly dry and hoppy with some raisin fruit. The beer comes with a Gold Medal for winning the brown ale class in the 1997 World Beer Championships though for someone raised on the milds and brown ales of England this is an extremely hoppy/bitter interpretation of the style. It would go well with spicy pizzas or ripe English Stilton blue cheese.
- Roger Protz

Charles Finkel
Founder of Merchant du Vin and the Pike Brewing Co., Charles Finkel is a pioneer in the marketing of craft beers in America.

Charlie Papazian
Author of the New Complete Joy of Homebrewing, founder of the Great American Beer Festival and a Beer Examiner at www.examiner.com, Papazian is a leading voice in beer and brewing.

Roger Protz
Roger Protz is the author of Complete Guide to World Beer and 300 Beers to Try Before You Die. He is a respected beer authority and editor of the CAMRA Good Beer Guide.