Maryland Beer: Baying Hound Aleworks Lord Wimsey's Mild Pale Ale

A few months ago in one of the Sessions I mentioned that in order to keep my stockpile of beer manageable, I had decided to only buy beer from a select few local states. It's been a success as far as keeping my ad-hoc beer buying binges at bay (alliteration!), but it's having unintended consequences elsewhere. I'm learning more about Maryland beer.

Because I don't like to drink the same beer repeatedly, I'm always on the lookout for something new. I thought that was going to be somewhat of a problem when it came to choosing beers from Maryland, but I'm finding that's far from the truth. There are so many beers right here in my backyard that I was unaware of. Because of that, I decided I'm going to focus my beer reviews much more on the local beer scene. I consider myself to be pretty in touch with the happenings of our local craft beer community, but if this many beers are slipping through my radar I'd imagine the same thing is happening for some of you. My goal is to increase my knowledge of the Maryland beerscape and hopefully pass my findings on to you.

Picture provided by Oliver from Literature and Libation.

Brewery Location: Rockville, Maryland
Style: Mild Pale Ale
Serving Type: Bottle
ABV: 6%
IBU: ?

Appearance: Lord Wimsey is copper colored with a thick velvety head. This particular beer took a solid ten minutes before the head reduced to a point that I could take a sip of the beer. I suspect this was a result of the bottle conditioning the beer goes through, and while it's understandable, I found it a bit inconvenient to wait around for the head to fade.

Aroma: The aroma reminded me of a doppelbock.  Lord Wimsey has a very malt forward smell that's full of bread and dark fruits like prunes and raisin. With almost no hop presence on the nose this beer takes you down a completely different path than you're probably used to walking with a Pale Ale

Taste: Lord Wimsey tastes just like it smells. You're hit with dark fruit, prunes, raisin and there is a definite bready quality hinting about. My bottle had a fair amount of carbonation, but again, that was probably due to bottle conditioning.

Final Verdict: Despite it's less than stellar reviews online, I like this beer quite a bit. They say that this is a beer brewed for people who don't want a hop bomb and they achieve that with ease. Malt bomb is probably a more accurate description for Baying Hound Aleworks Lord Wimsey's Pale Ale (man, that's a name). It's quite different from the average ale on the market and I appreciate it for the unique charm.