BREWS: Rising Tide Ishmael review

Call me Ishmael.

Just don’t call me a fan of Rising Tide Brewing‘s new ale. Ishmael may have been the omnipotent observer of Melville’s classic Moby Dick, but he sure as hell didn’t see this one coming.

It’s not that the beer was bad. Ishmael is a perfectly normal and acceptable Amercian copper ale, with all the hallmarks of the namesake: a strong, deep copper hue, citrusy sweet on the nose, malts playing on the tongue, with strong hop finish. But there’s the rub; it’s perfectly normal. I kept thinking to myself as I took sip after sip, that this beer tastes just like a hundred other American ales I’ve tasted over the last several years. There’s nothing unique, nothing stands out.

Which was really disappointing to me, considering this is a local brew with a really cool label.

I’m hoping Rising Tide’s other offerings don’t disappoint this way, especially the newly released Ursa Minor. (Insert some bad reference to Moby Dick here)

Chris Cavallari

About Chris Cavallari

Chris is a longtime digital content producer based in Maine. Since 1999, he has been an early adopter and active participant in blogging, podcasting, and social media, and has been guiding small and mid-sized businesses in leveraging video, social media, and digital publishing to the fullest. With an avid love of travel and the outdoors, Chris started PartTimeVagabond.com in 2009 to give him a platform to showcase his outdoors and travel adventures, and to help educate others in doing the same.