Adnams Southwold Bitter (Cask)

Brewed by Adnams
Style: Bitter
Southwold, England

Serve in English pint

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By tapped cask in the Blue Boar Maldon Essex Underrated because it allways tastes better in southwold! A nutty, tangy bitter with a distinctive aroma of smoke. A real bitter bitter!!

Colour is fantasic as well as the genuine hops and well balanced fusion between taste and aromas. malty yet smooth. My current favorite, but in short supply here in Australia.

Cask. Gorgeous amber colour, spot on mixture of maltiness with delicate fruit aroma, enough head to last. Not too strong so a great pint to enjoy several of through a summers evening.

Beer Engine: cloudy brown orange with a HUGE frothy foam, not just persistant, more like Stonehenge. . .crazy barnyard aroma, amazingly musty and natural, great yeast - sour and tart, very interesting and complex, almost like a gueuze. . . lingering sourness that keeps the palate wet and makes me want more.

Burnt orange to lt copper colored with a thin off white head. Malty nutty nose and hints of hops. Medium bodied and well balanced, low carbonation. Slightly stale hop flavor but a good session beer ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone

Aug 2006: I was very lucky, my parents had a caravan positioned in Southwold every summer. Drinking Adnams bitter in ’The Sole Bay Inn’, which is across the village green from the brewery is about as good as it gets! The beer has a mid-brown colour, which seems to change, almost light-brown, if the sun comes out and you are sat on one of the three benches outside. Hops and malty flavours battle it out in every mouthful, to let you know that a good quality British bitter is in your hand. The sights and smell of the brewery, help to ensure the beer just flows down the throat, this is a great session bitter and ideal for lunchtime drinking, while people watching, during a sunny English summers day (not that we get many).

Underrated because it’s so difficult to find on form. The classic Adnams in theme pubs is slightly sour with an offputting stale yeasty smell which nevertheless drinks OK. But try it where it’s appreciated and it is transformed into a nutty, tangy bitter with a distinctive aroma of woodsmoke.. If you don’t catch the aroma of woodsmoke you’re not tasting it at its best. Try it straight out of the cask at The Queen’s Head in Newton, near Cambridge or go to the source in beautiful Southwold.

Cask conditioned many times in Essex and Sufolk. I drink more of this beer than any other as it is in my local. Full flavoured for its gravity, hoppy and bitter with lots of dry hops which helps it keep longer.

I liked the fact that it is really bitter, as it says in the label of the Cask. It is a little cloudy the head, and like foam.

UPDATED: JAN 18, 2006 Cask Conditioned at the George Inn, Borough Market. Thin flavourslightly acidic vinegar, not well kept.
Re Sampled at The Woolpack, Banbury, Jan ’06
More like it, sampled in tip top condition at a meet the Brewer night. Dry long bitterness, plenty of flavour with a great hoppy finish. Good session bitter.