The Copper Tank

The Copper Tank is a sports bar with brewing equipment. The stylish pub has televisions on nearly every wall, a couple of pool tables, and lots of room that fills up quickly at happy hour. Rob Cartwright, the head brewer, runs the 15-barrel system that is visible behind the long bar. Cartwright estimates that the brewpub makes about 124,000 gallons of beer a year. The pub tries to have seven of their beers on tap. Beers 1, 3, 4, and 5 are usually available, while the other two rotate with other specialty beers.

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1. Copper Light The best-selling beer made at the brewpub, it sells about 500 gallons a week. Always on tap, it is a light-bodied, American-style ale made with Cascade hops for a rich flavor.

2. Cream Ale A seasonal beer made in the New England style. Similar to Copper Light, but more full-bodied and a little sweeter.

3. River City Raspberry Ale Made with fresh raspberries added to the Copper Light recipe, which allows the fruit flavor to come out gently.

4. Big Dog Brown Ale An English-style ale made with American hops to give it a slightly sweet, chocolatey flavor that is light in alcohol and very drinkable. A popular trend is to mix the Brown Ale and the Raspberry Ale for a chocolatey, fruity drink.

5. Cliffhanger Alt Silver medal winner at the 1996 Great American Beer Festival. It is a German-style brown ale a little more bitter and hoppy than English-style ale. Not quite as much of a chocolate flavor as the Brown Ale.

6. Oatmeal Stout Dark roasted grains give this beer a coffee flavor up front and 100 pounds of rolled oats smooth out the flavor for a nice finish.

	Copper Light	Cream Ale	River City Raspberry Ale	Big Dog Brown Ale	Cliffhanger Alt	Oatmeal Stout
Michael Bertin	13 Old Milwaukee? I needed a glass of water anyway.	13 Uh.... Can I get a beer, please?	18 Hey! Kool-Aid.	15 Even the music sucks here.	15 I want to revise my scores from Lovejoy's upwards. At least I'm not paying for this.	19 Stout. Flavorful, but not too heavy. Best thing here -- not saying too much.
Patrick Earvolino	8 Tastes like Fritos; smells like feet, or a Bugle with a clam infusion. Like drinking nothing.	2 I forgot to do beer #2.	9 Can ya please pass the jelly? Raspberry stuffed bugle. Finally, a new Dimetapp flavor.	21 A dark beer for dark-beer haters; chocolatey, nutty; thinner than Kate Moss.	19 Dusty and musty and woody.	31 Roasty. Great coffee taste, instant breakfast!!!
Spike Gillespie	6 Reminded me of a sorority girl: not much taste, too thin, too blonde, with an aftertaste of.... Um, what taste does a sorority girl leave in your mouth -- oh, darn, I forget!!	12 Not unlike the sorority sister; a little fuller, works a little harder, but still a bit airy for my tastes. Maybe it's the funnest sorority girl, but... it lives in the same house.	25 Num-num. I could see (easily) getting numb-numb on this. Wacky, woody aftertaste. And Spike loves a good wacky woody.	18 Well, it's copper, and I could, if forced, get tanked on it. So, um, okay. It's okay.	20 Good. This is good beer. Good, good, good.	30 I could definitely lose my contact lens in this beer (if I wore contacts). Darker than the Addams Family, more taste than Martha Stewart. Bartender, bring me another.
Johnny Hardwick	26 If you like Budweiser, you will love this beer, or if you're in a frat. Mmmm -- boy.	26 I am convinced that this is the same beer as number one. Wooo! Go Kappa Alpha!! Sig Eps suck!	32 Tastes like raspberry, and yet, no reddish color. Hmmm. I like it, not as Kool-Aid-y as most fruit beers. Would go well at a gay frat wedding.	27 Bitter as Chevy Chase, but slightly more palatable.	21 Mysteriously ooky.	24 Drink three of these and you'll be climbing Buford Tower with an automatic weapon and three rolls of toilet paper.
Pableaux Johnson	1 Odor: N/A. Taste: ?. Aftertaste: potato chips. Two words: Club Soda.	2 Appearance: yellow. Odor: [?]. Taste: [?]. Aftertaste: N/A. Not much more taste than the first one. 13 Hey. This is the same as the last one but no Graham Crackers.	3 Appearance: clear. Sodee Pop. The Kool-Aid of beers.	12 Ain't got no body.	10 Odor: Barely. This one really wants to....	19 The first beer to actually have a discernible taste.
Kate Messer	18 Yum! Graham Crackers! A great refreshment for the Teddy Bear picnic. I honestly like this. It tastes like cookies.	13 Hey. This is the same as teh last one but no Graham Crackers.	14 Michael was right. It's a rainbow of fruit flavors.	15 It smells like salmon. Wait. That's my fingers.	15 When I hold my glass up to the big screen, I can still see the golfer's ass.	20 Yep. I can't see the golfer's ass. That's dark.
Meredith Phillips	10 Clear, light. I think it's like a light beer you might drink out of a can in high school. Meanwhile, they just brought a tray of smoked salmon.... This is more like it.	9 This one isn't quite as wussy, but it's still not a beer for people with any expectations on the palate.	8 Aftertaste: clear. Why are all these beers completely clear? This has a raspberry treatment which pushes it into the cough-syrup spectrum.	20 This one earned points just because it's darker. Still, a little thin-bodied, but more flavor -- chocolatey, nutty.... The best one yet by far; still, short of a good beer	24 This beer has no odor, but is that a bad thing? Why penalize it? Hoppy, bigger, the best we've had here.	34 Appearance: light doesn't penetrate it. Odor: light. Taste: like a holiday. Aftertaste: bitter. Best of bunch.
Bruce Robison	11 To nothingness for me; a light beer, for people who don't like beer.	10 I hate fruity beer. I'd rather drink Zima.	26 Looks great. Nutty, medium in so many ways.	20 It would be hard to get even a frat boy to sing this.		17 Appearance: black. She's so heavy (Ballad of John and Yukky).
Kelly Willis	18 Appearance: clear. Very watery, not much to it. I like light beers, but not this one. Of course, if you're on a diet, this would not make you feel bad about drinking a lot.	22 Nice lighter beer. Heavier than the last one, but not as bitter as some.	24 Fruity, raspberry, interesting, but I can't imagine getting attached to it. Plus, it rated all 6s and that's not a good sign.	25 Smooth, yet indistinctive.	28 I like it. Beautiful bronze color. The best one they have so far.	17 Appearance: black. Smells like weak coffee, tastes like carbonated coffee, yet drinkable! Pouring black beer into my body scares me. Makes me uncomfortable.