We've been hearing about cans from Marshall Wharf for awhile and were pretty excited to finally pick some up on a recent trip up to Maine. If you're not familiar with Marshall Wharf Brewing Company that's completely understandable. Outside of New England, or perhaps outside of Maine, they are relatively unheard of as the brewery is fairly small and distribution is pretty limited. In fact, the reverse of their cans reads, "We can and distribute one 200 gallon batch per week." So yeah, they are small...but damn do they make good beer.

From the Marshall Wharf site:

"This beer is the one beer that our brewers and I would take to that mythical deserted island if we could only bring one Marshall Wharf beer. Huge malt backbone matched with huge amounts of hops."

Pour - dark golden with hints of reddish orange, nice deep colors with a substantial head on top. At close to 10% this definitely has some legs and pours rather viscous.

Aroma - BIG aromas of pineapple and mango. Love those tropical notes brought on by ridiculous amounts of hops. This is an extremely fragrant brew with loads of floral aromas and sweetness from the malt backbone. Wow, this is one of those beers that you get pleasure from just from burying your nose in the glass.

Taste - all those big fruity, tropical aromas translate into some amazing palate pleasing flavors that combine with a big malt backbone. Defintiely some sweetness to this beer but not cloying or syrupy whatsoever. The bitterness is pretty much held in check and a lot of the flavors are coming straight from the hops - and they are pretty tasty. 

Overall - excellent. I feel pretty satisfied with finally being able to enjoy a pint of Cant Dog in the comfort of my own home. Its great to see the amazing beers of this small, mid-coast brewery are now packed in a portable package that will definitely introduce quite a few new fans to this pretty special little brewery. 

Note - Marshall Wharf is currently only canning their Cant Dog Imperial Pale Ale. The cans were designed in a way that will allow the brewery to place a clear adhesive denoting whichever beer they happen to put inside. If you're in Maine be sure to hunt these down, have a pint of their beer on tap, or if you have the time head up the coast and visit their brewpub in beautiful Belfast.