Ok, you ask yourself, you’ve heard the term before, but just what is this real ale business anyway? All existentialism aside, I submit to you that all ale is real, in a purely physical sense. Still, CAMRA (The Campaign for Real Ale, a British consumer protection group) might have a problem with that. They define “real ale” as any beer that undergoes a fermentation in the vessel from which it shall be dispensed.

That can be a cask, as is often the case in England and sometimes even here in America at your favorite local brewpub. But it can also be a bottle if the brew is bottle conditioned with a dose of yeast.

Enter, Bar Harbor Real Ale, a product of the Atlantic Coast Brewing Company of Bar Harbor, Maine, with special thanks to the folks at Shipyard in Portland for their efforts in contract brewing this beer for wider distribution. Without further ado, let’s try some, shall we? I don’t know about you, but I’m getting a little thirsty here.

Bar Harbor Real Ale pours to a dark chestnut brown color with a very light head formation and a nutty, sweet molasses nose. The palate is rich with toasty-nutty, chocolaty malts and you’ll get them right away when you sip. There’s a hint of coffee and sticky dark malt, too, but the beer finishes well balanced with a gentle kiss of hops.

To be sure, this is a beer that emphasizes malt in all its toasted roasted glory. And I think this is a very tasty dark nut brown ale, a tad bolder than a Newcastle Brown or a Samuel Smith’s, but all the more flavorful for that. Still, it’s a different beer than it used to be, and really when you get down to it, not a real ale. At least I don’t think it is, because when I decanted my bottle, I didn’t see any yeast at the bottom of the bottle. And that, of course, would make this an unreal ale.

In 1999 I took the following notes on Bar Harbor Real Ale, which of course was then a real real ale.

Reddish brown color, gentle head formation, bottle conditioned, rich yeasty nose. Dark, rich malt body here, slightly biscuity but with a hint of chocolate, light carbonation, yeasty finish, very drinkable. A very malt balanced beer, and a very good one at that.

See? It had yeast in the bottle then, and I’m betting the stuff they bottle at the small brewery in Bar Harbor for the locals still does. At any rate, even the unreal real ale is still a tasty, drinkable brew, but one half demerits off for not really being real.

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