3.5 AROMA 7/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 15/20
Cask (gravity dispense), St Albans Beer Festival, September 2007. One of the several specials made by Alehouse for this festival, which demonstrates that UK brewers can make interesting and relatively extreme beers when they want to. This one went for a full-on US citric hop experience and did it pretty well. Big flowery aroma. Citrus takes over in the flavour. Mouthfeel is soft but not flabby. Golden colour. Bit short of condition resulting in a rather flat mouthfeel. Well done, but suffered a little in comparison with the Grand Union Simcoe that I had a couple of beers earlier.
4.1 AROMA 8/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 8/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 17/20
Cask @ St. Albans BF. Golden and hazy with a lasting thin white head. Citrus and hops in the nose. Fruity, juicy hops, orange and pineapple flavour with a bitter dryness in the end. As Henri mentioned below, the UK malt and yeast makes for an odd combo but the blatant American over hopped character just about pulls it off. I’m getting more into these hoppy beers by the minute.
3.8 AROMA 8/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 16/20
Cask@St. Albans BF. Some lovely aromatic hops in the nose. Also seems quite earthy. Lots of sappy green hop character, with a nice dry bitterness on the finish. Some pine and lychee, with subtle notes of tea. Very good cask ale.
4.1 AROMA 8/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 8/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 17/20
Cask gravity at St Albans BF 2007. Hazy copper colour with lasting bubbly beige head. Lovely grapefruit hop aroma. It’s odd, I just don’t think that this works with UK malts and yeast. Too empty in the mouth. But then overall I sit back and think about it and I must admit that this is the best UK APA I’ve had. Still lacks sufficient malt, but it still rocks.
4.1 AROMA 8/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 8/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 17/20
A Mes rate:
Unusual top spike cask at St. Albans beer fest. Slightly hazy dark gold with a thin but stable white head. Full on American style hop fest aroma with all the grass peach and citrus notes you could want. Flavour is an equally excellent lesson in hoppage. Citric all over the place. Grassy and floral, all you could want from hops and more. Hempish and almost smoky finish. Very very good indeed.
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