Dunedin Brewery

Stopped at this brewery while in Florida for a work related conference and really enjoyed it.  When you walk in you are greeted by an open floor plan that includes the actual brewing equipment, which I always love.  Sat down and naturally ordered a flight of beers, letting the bartender make up the flight with his favorite brews.  I also had an order of their chicken fingers while I sampled and although there was nothing special about the food they do make their own beer infused barbeque sauce which was amazing.  If you are ever in the area I would highly recommend making a visit.

Apricot Peach Ale
Peach and apricot on the nose and upfront on the tongue.  Poured a cloudy pale golden color, slightly darker than one might expect for a wheat based beer.  I found the beer had just the right amount of hop bitterness which helped balance the sweetness of the fruit.  This was a very refreshing, drinkable beer and probably my second favorite from this brewery.

Pale Ale
Poured a blond copper color with a heavy off-white head.  Very mild hop aroma.  Hop bitterness was appropriate for the style, not overbearing, and balanced well with the malts.  Excellent example of the style, but nothing extraordinary.

Maibock (Helles Bock Lager)
I had a hard time picking up the hops in the aromas of these beers and this one was no exception.  This beer had good bitterness profile that hung around on the back of the tongue but wasn't soapy.  I found this to be far maltier than Dunedin's Pale Ale and it poured about the same color.  This was a much better example of the style than the Maibock Cask that I sampled later.

Red Ale 
Poured a lovely brown with hints of red.  Very low hop bitterness with nice toasted malts and a dry finish.  This was a very easy beer to drink.

Biere de Cafe
Okay, finally something easy to detect on the nose... coffee, and lots of it!  Seriously smells like a shot of espresso and I remember hoping the taste would follow up.  Boom!  Tastes like espresso too, if you love coffee this is the beer for you.  Very little hop bitterness and surprisingly little bitterness from the coffee itself.  Fairly light body which was very appropriate for a brown ale which this beer is built on.  Pours a murky mid brown color with lower carbonation...which works perfectly with this style.  Found out the brewery uses freshly brewed local coffee added to the secondary.  This was my favorite offering from Dunedin and I definitely got some great ideas for a batch of homebrew.

The Bard (Heavy Scotch Ale)
Big heavy scotch ale. No shit.  Little hop aroma but big flavor.  You can definitely taste the alcohol at 8%, but it isn't overpowering and actually creates a wonderful balance up against the malt heavy base. Another excellent beer.

Maibock Cask
I only tried a small sample of this after I finished my flight so I don't have much to say.  It poured a murky yellow color and had a fruity/yeasty aroma which followed though on the taste.  I can't say this was bad but I feel the fruitiness was out of place for this particular style.