I've been meaning to try beers from Geary's since they've become more readily available around the bottle shops in my area. D.L. Geary Brewing is located in Portland, Maine. It's one of the family owned breweries profiled in Brian Yeager's Red White and Brew -- actually one of the more interesting stories in the book. As for the beers, I've had their flagship pale ale many times on the East Coast, but have not had the chance to try their other beers. Mostly they do English-style beers, or at least on the more English side of the line in the styles that have (now) both American and English roots.
Geary's London Porter (1.045 OG, so roughly 4.5% abv).
They list this as using their "Hampshire ale yeast". The website lists the malt bill as pale, crystal, chocolate and black malts, with Cascade, Willamette and Goldings hops. (Aha...wait you say. English style but with Cascade? Believe it or not, I've used almost this same hop mix in my porters for years, and it comes out really nicely. My inspiration for this was Summit rather than Geary's.) The beer has a nice, fresh, estery aroma, a hint of chocolate, and a touch of alcohol despite the modest gravity. It's a dark-but-not-quite-black "porterish" color with a low, off-white head. For some reason, my notes say "better flavor balance than the pale ale I think" -- which is odd, since I haven't had Geary's pale in some time. But thankfully I got more specific -- no hop flavor to compete with the chocolatey malt, and the brown-sugar sweetness of the aftertaste. It's a very flavorful beer, but the mouthfeel is lean -- full on the tongue and then thinner after you swallow it with just a touch of coffee roastiness. Really nice -- one of the best porters I've had. (I see on their website they are touting the fact that the New York Times tasting panel voted it the best porter in the world. I think they are bozos mostly, but on this they at least picked one that won't disappoint.)
Geary's Hampshire Special Ale (1.070, or about 6.5-7% abv).The aroma of this one is big, fruity-orange, what some British writers call "juicy" -- like a really extra huge version of Fuller's. Obviously it uses the same yeast strain as the porter, though it comes across much differently here without the chocolate notes from the malt. This beer is deep copper in color, with an off-white head. It has some sweetness up front but a long, hoppy, bitter finish. It's a very layered beer in flavor -- sweet, then bitter, then drier on the finish. It's not at all cloying despite its strength. Geary's website lists the malts here also as British pale, crystal and chocolate, but the balance is much more to the pale and with only a touch of chocolate at most. I wouldn't have thought there was any just tasting it. Hops are listed as Cascade, Mt. Hood and Goldings.
Geary's Wee Heavy (1.080, or about 7.5-8% abv).
This one's big. It's also the only one of the range that I wasn't sold on. The aroma is really, really nice: plums, raisins and rum-raisin, a rose-petal note from the alcohol, a hint of pepper and spice cake. In other words, complex and wonderful. It's deep brown color with some red highlights, but browner than I expected. Very low head. But it also had a much bigger blast of hops than I expected. The website, which I see now, says "mellow hoppiness." Uh... actually it's quite bitter. Puckering on the finish really. Almost harsh. Some sweet malt peeks though and a hint of roast, but mostly the harsh/earthy hop finish. I would have loved less bitterness, though of course it might have seemed too sweet then. But not to be an ass, but that's the beauty of the style isn't it? It's supposed to be malty-sweet without being cloying; the classics have figured out the balance, right? Anyway, taken on its own terms, ok but challenging. Best to think of this not as a Wee Heavy but as a less huge version of a UK Barleywine. Anyway, let me know what you all think. Anyone see any of their other beers around these parts?
