Woodstock Inn: Pig’s Ear

Looking for a unique brown ale from a good brewery? Well, you may have to live around my area of New Hampshire to really find it but you may pick it up in the New England area or outside of it if you get around here. Woodstock Inn Brewery houses some great beers, Pig’s Ear is one of those great beers brewed at the brewery.

When I got on vacation up north I visit Woodstock Inn for dinner and a beer, always choosing one of their own brews over the standard beers. This is their 2005 award winning beer from a taste competition in which it was blindly entered:

“Our beer was blindly entered in this national competition, from store-bought bottles, by organizers of the competition who wanted to ensure variety in their competition. They never imagined such a great quality beer would come from an unknown source. Then, that is how people often discover great things.

Pig’s Ear walked away with National Grand Champion in the brown ale category and Best of the Northeast, having been judged from a total of 310 beers from 121 breweries nationwide.” (woodstockinnh.com)

Sound impressive? Well, actually, it is. This beer is more nutty than classically malt tasting, a darker rich amber with a sweet finish. Right away you’ll notice it’s a very complex tasting brew with no bitterness and a crisp brown ale aroma. Pig’s Ear tastes lighter than it smells, sniff it and you’ll think dark stout but taste it and you’ll find its a medium bodied aroma blast of the senses with a thin off-white head.

If ever you’re in the area, taste a Pig’s Ear from Woodstock Inn Brewery and if you’re given the chance, stop in for a burger of a dinner plate.