You can't get much more Irish than a name like Sullivan's. BUT, if you add the name "Irish Gold" to your golden ale and it ALSO happens to already come from Ireland itself, then you might be looking at one of the most Irish things out there. Some might say that you'd have to have a bottle of Irish whiskey with a sad poem written on it to be more Irish, but beer is what we do here.
The beverage pours with a respectable head, and the gold color is quite hazy and turning to bronze. The mouth-watering aroma is sweet malt with a tinge of honey and spices about it. I have slowly gained an appreciation for golden ales over the past few beers, and I suspect this is going to be one of the better ones.First sip is gentle at first, but the honey laps up across the mouth with a strangely dusty and somewhat bitter trail that overcomes the sweetness that the beer starts with. It’s strange enough that I go in for an uncustomary second sip to find that it is perfectly acceptable, but the strange quality now tips into an almost wine-like dryness at the end. It’s peculiar.
Tip-in is honey malt with a carbonation sizzle and flowers gathered as onlookers. The middle spreads across the mouth with a smooth and thick malt richness as the flowers are again relegated to the sidelines and the carbonation keeps step. The finish is where the honey turns almost to honey wine with the dusty flowers adding a bitterness that wasn’t there earlier.
Bottom Line: She’s different, and that difference is pretty good.
2.75/5