Legbiter Ale – Strangford Lough Brewing Company
July 9, 2010
Legbiter Ale is one of two sample beers The Brew Club received recently from the people who promote Strangford Lough Brewing in the United States. (The other beer is called St. Patrick’s Best and will be reviewed separately.)
Sure I’m biased, but I think sending beer-bloggers samples of new beers is a great way to get some relatively cheap publicity. If the beer is good, then its an even better deal for the brewery, right?
In this case, it seems as if almost every beer-blogger I follow (and there are quite a few of them) has gotten samples of this beer to review, and so I think they are doing a good job at getting their product noticed.
The beer itself is created a bit differently than most other beers. On the label, it says ‘Product of USA. Crafted from barley grown in St. Patrick’s Country.” What’s that mean? Well, it seems that Strangford Lough employ a cost-effective process of making this beer whereby the first brew uses Irish barley to produce a malt extract concentrate that is then shipped to the US to be finished brewed.
Legbiter Ale is ‘finish brewed’ at High Falls Brewing Company, (HFBC) located in Rochester NY. HFBC is part of North American Breweries , and is the contract brewer that “finishes” the Strangford Lough beers in the US. I’m assuming that this method is cheaper while allowing them to maintain the beer’s ‘Irish character’.
At first I didn’t know what or who a ‘Legbiter’ was. I thought perhaps it was the name of an angry dog. A Postal Worker may know of a legbiter or two! No, reading up a bit, ‘Legbiter’ was the name of the sword that King Magnus (Magnus Barelegs) was buried with. OK, so now we know something about the beer, and what Legbiter was, so let’s finally get to the beer!
I’m not really sure what kind of beer this is. On their website, they classify Legbiter Ale as a ‘Golden Ale’, but I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of an Irish Golden Ale. Have you? Others seem to think its more like an English Pale Ale, and I’d agree just based on the looks of it – but I’ll defer to the brewer.
This 4.8% ABV ‘Golden Ale pours a clear brownish color into my glass, 
creating a nice looking bubbly head. It does not appear to be overly-carbonated, and I’m not noticing much in the way of lacing on the glass.
The aroma is nice enough, with malt being prominent. It reminds me in some ways of some Scotish Ales I’ve tried – with very little in the way of hops in the nose. Sweet malt, perhaps caramel and certainly bready.
Legbiter tasted quite like is smelled. No surprises here! Malty, bready and a sweetness like caramel came to the front. There was some bitterness and it finished dry. Even though it didn’t knock my socks off, I liked it.
The beer was medium-bodied, and as I mentioned it was not too carbonated so it makes for an easy-drinking session-style ale I think. There is some lingering bitterness in the aftertaste, and its a little sticky feeling, but it works.
Wrapping up, I’d say that the Strangford Lough Legbiter Ale, (whatever style it may be), is a nice tasting beer. I’d prefer to have this during the cooler months of the Fall or Winter as I think as its a little heavy and sticky, but overall, I’d give it a solid thumbs up. If you like Scotish Ales – give it a try! (ahhh, the peat) 
Rating: 
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Posted in 3 Star Reviews, Ales, American Beers
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July 9th, 2010 at 1:52 pm
Why am I the only one not getting some beers shipped to me? Oh well! I’d like to try some of these brews that keep getting shipped but it appears that they normally do one per site and they always find Nate’s name first. Glad you liked it. I’m jealous over free beer.
.-= michael reinhardt´s last blog ..Trying Not To Be Bored With Beer Reviews =-.
July 9th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
@Michael, I think its the luck of the draw, but it could be one sample per blog? I don’t know but I think its a cheap (and smart) way to get the word out. Makes sense to me!
.-= Scott-TheBrewClub´s last blog ..Sea Dog Blueberry Beer =-.
July 10th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
I tried the outher one in the green label and thought it was very, very good! Thanks for the review of this.
July 10th, 2010 at 4:34 pm
@big lass – I confess upon first glance I thought your name was something else!
Anyway, thanks for popping by. I thought the St. Patcick’s Ale (green label) was pretty good too – look for the review shortly!
.-= Scott-TheBrewClub´s last blog ..Sunny and 75 – Rock Art Brewery =-.
July 15th, 2010 at 12:33 pm
What was the brewer blind? There is nothing golden about this at all! It is more brown than gold. But it does sound like a good brew, maybe for transition to stout season.
.-= Don´s last blog ..Stone’s Sublimely Self Righteous- The name says it all =-.
July 15th, 2010 at 1:00 pm
Don, I take pretty crappy pictures, but even still its hard to say this beer is golden. Dunno what the deal is there, but otherwise it was an enjoyable brew.
.-= Scott-TheBrewClub´s last blog ..Magic Hat Brewing Company – Wacko =-.
July 15th, 2010 at 6:55 pm
So do we know why there is a big sword on the label?
What style would you say this most resembles, if you had to choose one?
.-= Royce´s last blog ..This Week in Sports- The British Open startedyesterday =-.
July 15th, 2010 at 11:03 pm
@Royce – the big sword IS Legbiter. Apparently everyone named their swords back then – at least all the cool Kings did it!
I would say it tasted similar to an English Pale Ale, and it looked like one too – at least more-so than an Irish Golden Ale – (whatever that is)
.-= Scott-TheBrewClub´s last blog ..The ‘Official’ London Beer Taster =-.
March 22nd, 2011 at 11:59 am
Hello- I wondered if anyone could help with this question: I purchased a case of SLBC St. Patrick’s Best Ale last week, and thought the beer had an ‘off’ taste- certainly not like the descriptions I’d read online.
Unfortunately the date isn’t clearly marked on their brews’ bottles- it’s a code.
The code is: 0290 12:38 4DEP
From what I’ve read about High Falls dating for other lines, it’s possible this was bottled on Jan 29, 2010- which would make it well past its prime. Can anyone help verify the date coding from this brewery? I’ve tried contacting SLBC without success!
Thanks!
March 22nd, 2011 at 12:30 pm
@Pete – Wish I could help you. Its interesting that after this large promotional push (many bloggers reviewed this beer) I don’t think I’ve seen it for sale anywhere! Wonder what happened. Maybe what you bought was all that was left?
March 22nd, 2011 at 1:01 pm
Scott- Thanks for your reply! Believe it or not, our local distributor had a stack of about 6-8 cases of this (right up front in the store, with other brews promoted for St. Patrick’s Day- including a choice from Harpoon that I wish I’d tried instead!) They do not have the Legbiter Ale.
This distributor seems to not to care greatly about freshness dates, so my general rule of thumb is to only buy beer there that has actual, readable dates! I made an exception this time, since I knew he’d just gotten this stock in- but since it has a name that has obvious seasonal appeal, I’m just wondering if his wholesale supplier may have kept these around from last year for the holiday and sent them out. I see enough really old beer on the shelves there that I know dating isn’t a big concern, and maybe their supplier knows this as well! Thanks again.
March 22nd, 2011 at 1:58 pm
@Pete V – Its a possibility for sure. As I said, I don’t think I’ve ever seen this beer beyond the initial push, and sure I could see it getting more attention around St. Patrick’s Day for obvious reasons.
I’m guessing the only way to know for sure would be to contact someone @ the brewery, or maybe the wholesaler might be able to translate the codes? I doubt it. Let me dig around to see if I can find the email of the person who contacted me about reviewing the beer. If I find it, I’ll send it along to you at the email address you provided w/ the comment if that’s OK.
Sucks getting bad beer!
March 22nd, 2011 at 7:38 pm
Scott- Thanks! I’d definitely appreciate any possible follow-up info. I did speak with a nice rep at High Falls Brewing (Rochester, NY), and while she couldn’t provide much info since this is a contract brew, she told me the date sounded like 1/29/10 according to their dating system. (She was also going to try to get more info on this for me, in case the coding is indeed different).
The irony here is that TLBC’s entire approach to distributing their beer in the US, including sending over wort and having the beer finished at US contract breweries, is all about freshness! So it would be a bummer if new customers like me were drinking old stock.
Here in PA, one issue beer drinkers like me have had in exploring new beer is having to invest in an entire case at a time (it’s still fairly recent that we’ve had stores selling single bottles or six packs, and these are not common in areas like mine). I agree that it sucks getting bad beer, and especially an entire case!
Thanks again-
Pete V
March 22nd, 2011 at 7:56 pm
@Pete V – Yeah, I have a feeling we’re talking about the same person. It was a contract beer, and yeah, the concept was pretty cool too. I guess the problem is if nobody buys it, it gets old by default!
Wow. I don’t think I could buy a whole case of anything for that reason! That’s an expensive way to try new beers.
Why not form a ‘Brew Club’ amongst some friends and share the costs and rewards – or risks as it may be! Another idea might be one of the better beer-of-the month plans, but that’s not cheap either.
Anyway, make it known to your beer monger that you’d like to seem more variety and smaller quantities available. Maybe if enough people make noise, they’ll provide it. I’m sure they make more $$$ selling 24 singles than a whole case of something anyway.