I know I said I was going to try and lay off the nautical reference beers but this is the last one of the Beer of the Month beers so I had to get it out of the way.  Fisherman’s IPA is brewed by the Cape Anne Brewing Company of Massachusetts.

Fisherman’s IPA has a nice, even amber color, with a very fruity almost sweetness to the scent.  You pick up very easily on the blackberries and cherries used in the brew.  There is a consistent, but mild head that follows you all the way down the glass as you drink.  The most important part, the taste, is where this beer is totally lacking.  There is a sweetness and a good complexity to the taste with all the malted hops and fruits, but the bitterness is so heavy it takes away from the real taste.  That annoying bitterness lingers long after you’ve taken that first sip.  It gets a little more tolerable the more your taste buds get adjusted to it but it’s still so overpowering you can’t focus on the good parts.  Who cares what the alcohol content is.  You probably can’t finish one anyway.

I don’t think there is a good nautical beer out there.  I know I haven’t found one.  It’s like, once you say something that eludes to water or fish or boats then breweries just associate that with bitterness.  Maybe they’re trying to remind you of the taste of sea water.  Please, if you know of a beer that can redeem all the nautical reference beers I’ve had, I’d love to try it.  For now I think I’m done.  I’ll just drink the sea water.

Rating: 1

I tried St. Peter’s Cream Stout cause I had no idea what a cream stout was. St. Peter’s Cream Stout is brewed by the St. Peter’s Brewery in the U.K.

You notice immediately that this is going to be a heavy, thick beer. The color is dark amber, with a slight reddish tint and approaches pitch black in the center. The smell has a strange quality. I would describe it as the smell of a cabernet sauvignon. You can kind of catch a hint of berries. The smell is more akin to wine than beer. The Taste is just bitter. Bitter at the start, bitter at the end, a lot of bitter in the middle, and very dry throughout. I could try to describe some of the other flavors but it wouldn’t be worth it. All you can taste is bitter. You would expect this to have a very high alcohol content but at only 6.5% it seems to have a lot of bitterness for the alcohol content.

Normally at this point I’m winding down to the bottom of the glass but this beer is so bitter I’ve almost got a full glass. I can’t recommend this to anyone, even if you like dark beers stay away from this one. Try some of the other dark beers I’ve reviewed. Maybe you’re supposed to drink this beer warm or at room temperature, I don’t know, but I’m not going to find out. Oh yeah, I still have no idea what cream stout is.

Rating: 1