Smuttynose Old Brown Dog Ale

The dog's name on the label is Olive, but he's a brown dog. Anyway, this is a dark ale with more alcohol in it than a typical beer. It's thicker and heavier than most ales, as well. Although there aren't hints of sour or overbearing bitterness, this is not a light beer in texture or flavor. I found it hard to drink more than one in a sitting because of the alcohol content and the taste of it did not match well with the foods I was eating. I would probably only drink this after dinner since the alcohol and flavor was overbearing towards food. Unfortunately, I couldn't buy a single to try and ended up with six. There's still one floating in the fridge and because of the higher alcohol content and the awkward pairing with foods I like, I'm not inspired to drink them.

Smuttynose Portsmouth Lager

The box says, "Make mine a Smutty!" I thought that "m" could be replaced with an "l", or not. I like a good lager because they go great with chips, burgers, and all the foods that would also go great with soda. Smuttynose makes a darker lager than the typical American lagers and it doesn't taste like them. This one doesn't have the carbonation overload and thin density common in most lagers. Overall, this was good, I'd put it up there right below Brooklyn Lager for being great lagers.