yakka it up

It's the first day of Beer Week and I feel like I should be drinking local.  Or at least national.  The only really national beer left, it seems, is Yakka Mare Nostrum Ale.  Good enough to start with!

The label invokes the calm of the seaside, with the design as much as the color scheme - until you take a closer look and see what ugly fish those are.

Yikes

It's definitely beery beer: right color, right suds, although maybe a little light on those actually.  A little aley in smell, but not too much.  I think I detect a hint of the sea in the flavor, just a hint of salinity, but otherwise it is, as I said, a very beery beer.  In spite of being an ale, it's only mildly bitter and slightly sour in the aftertaste.  I'm told to be on the lookout for citrus notes, but All Day might have burnt those taste buds out.  There is some mild fruitiness that develops as the glass empties, but I don't identify it as citrus.  Although seafood is the recommended accompaniment, the flavor is mild enough to go with anything, really.  Not a walloping start to Beer Week, but you don't want to run out of steam too early, do you?