Adnams Spindrift

Brewed by Adnams
Style: Golden Ale/Blond Ale
Southwold, England

Serve in English pint, Shaker

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Bottle (330ml from Sainsburys): Light smelling with some faint hops and a little bit more of malts and touches of toffee/caramel as well.
Light caramel brown colour with a bubbly white head that fades quickly to leave a tiny amount of bubbles around the side of the glass.
Fairly bitter tasting beer to begin with, there is a bit of malt and earthy hops too. Like the smell, I felt the taste was lacking a little bit of depth and was pretty basic. At the end there was some more bitterness and a burnt caramel taste.
Light bodied although not what I would call thin. There is a fair bit of carbonation and bitter, almost burnt feeling finish.

The body on this one was too light and both the taste and smell were lacking, particularly considering the reputation of the brewery. I didn’t feel this was the best of beers to be introduced to the Adnams range and I am sure there are a lot better beers from them out there for me to hunt down.

1001 Beers Blog:

Bottle from Booth’s. Cool blue bottle, pale yellowish golden beer, interesting use of wheat in the mix, quenching ale, some fresh fruity flavours. Not amazing but a good one for summer.

Bottle at home. Pours a light clear golden colour with very little head. Aroma of honey and light hops - smells more like a lager than an kind of ale, but not unpleasant. Fruity sweet taste (lots of melon), dry finish. Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Quite refreshing but not really my style.

Pours a golden colour ale. nose is promosing with apple and malty notes but the body is not held together well. Overly hopped for my liking and the maltiness and sugar seemed at odds. Improves only slightly on warming up but another disappointing release from Adnams.

A funky blue glass 33cl bottle from Sainsburys. Poured straw coloured with absolutely no head and some light carbonation; citrus aroma; crisp citrus flavour to start then becoming soft and flabby with a malty body; the finish has some herbal bitterness, but overall this is a disappointment.

Cask at Bridge House. Gold body with tiny head. Bitter, prickly. Grapefruity flavours. Quite sweet. Dry. Sharp taste.

(bottle, 33cl) Clear, deep golden colour with a mid-sized off-white foamy head. Mildly cara-malty aroma with notes of grassy and slightly fruity hops, also hints of wet cardboard. Moderately bitter flavour, dry mouthfeel, light to medium bodied with a moderate carbonation. Slightly papery malty base with traces of caramel and present grassy and herbal hops; dry and moderately bitter hoppy finish, again slightly papery. 08.IV.12

On tap at the Bridge House. A Kilkenny sort of ale, with creamy head and fine golden apperance. Served way too cold. Still, there is a little body with the Adnams flavour and a finish that isn’t too bad.

Bottle from Sainsbury’s. Nose is caramel malts, hint of vanilla, a bit skunked. Flavour is caramel malts, little metallic, bit of biscuit and grass. Slightly bitter finish.

Keg (filtered and chilled but not pasteurised) at The Bridge House, London Bridge, November 2006. I’m struggling to see the point of this beer. Its supposedly aimed at "drinkers that appreciate the Adnams branding but won’t drink cask". How many of those are there? People who won’t drink cask already have a beer of choice - its called keg lager. Adnams seem to be going really big on this branding thing and are presumably hoping they can build a market for this in trendy bars that don’t sell cask beer. Not much to say about the beer. Looks fine - golden amber colour. Served chilled so not much aroma but what there is is mildly hoppy and inoffensive. Dry on the palate. Clean enough but rather short of flavour. Better than most UK keg offerings I suppose.