Atomic Half Life

Brewed by Atomic (England)
Style: American Pale Ale
Rugby, England

Serve in Lager glass, Shaker

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Sampled at the Brewers own pub ("The Victoria Inn"). This is an awesome american style pale ale. I spoke (listened!) to the brewers at great length about the quantities of hops used to brew up this ale - and you can really taste it too! Excellent bittering, full flavour, crisp, clean tasting. Well worth a try if you can find it. Original brewed as a one-off celebration ale, it went down so well the brewery are going to make it one of their regulars.

[693-20070925] Cask @ Far From The Madding Crowd (Oxford, OX). Grapefruit citrus hops aroma. Hazy, pale yellow white body with a long-lasting creamy white head. More fresh grapefruit hops in the flavour with a hint of lemon and grass. Medium body, complex, bitter finish. Lovely lovely hoppy beer!

Cask at The Hop Pole pubs Easter Beer Festival, Aylesbury in the company of Loz, Chris O, Ruth, Barry, Lynn 21-03-08 Nice soft tasting beer with a slightly sulphurous nose, light golden in colur with minimal thin white film of bubbles. Well executed beer and along with it’s stablemate Fission probably two of the best looking and best conditioned beers here, Atomic are really doing a great job with their beers. Great tasty APA, quite drying at times the bitterness really carries, it’s lovely. Great credit to this small brewery that this beer was only pipped to the post as my beer of this festival by Oakham Haka.

UPDATED: SEP 25, 2007 Cask. At The Wenlock Arms, London. Poured very pale yellow, cloudy with a slow-diminishing flock of miniscule suspended tiny bubbles in it for several minutes after being pulled, but it was quite clear thereafter - smallish frothy white head. Interesting aroma of sour grain and acidic, herbal hops - this was hard to pin down, I kept changing my notes with each sniff and sip. The taste was VERY acidic, almost lemony, with plenty of bitter herbal/floral hop acidity and light sweet malt backing, ultimately ending with a long dry bitter finish. Very light bodied, solidly acid on the palate, very drying - I was actually thirsty after my half-pint of this. I really wasn’t sure what to make of it - damned if I could assert any one style it fell under - but I quite liked it.

Cask conditioned - handpump - Vat & Fiddle, Nottingham. A pale orange coloured beer with a white head and lacing. The aroma is nice hops with notes of grapefruit and tangerine. More hops in the very bitter taste. Quite sharp grapefruit flavours. A little too bitter for its body, although there is a warming hint of alcohol early doors.

Cask handpull at Wenlock Arms. Pale gold with thin bubbly white head. As you would guess, it’s a blond hoppy beer. Good grapefruit. Fullish in mouth. Good grapefruit aroma. Smooth in mouth. Stinging hop finish. A little bit of washing up liquid flavour. Pretty decent strongish blond ale.

Cask, Leicester Fest 08. Hazy gold with a white foam. Aromas are buttery malts with decent citrus bitterness. Woody with some sulphur. Flavours are grapefruit bitterness with a dry, peppery strong bitter finish.

Cask, The Victoria, Rugby. Still and unlacy dark amber. Dominant flavours of (unsugared) grapefruit and peanut husk bitterness. Not much else going on. Pretty intense bitterness, but mellower hop attack (Amarillo) than the Fission and Strike, with some softening malt. You’ve got to applaud what these boys are doing with the hops, but sometimes you want just a little sprinkle of sugar on your grapefruit...

Cask at Rook and Gaskill Inn, York, N. Yorkshire. Hazy golden. Citric nose. Dryish, yet fruity with medium body and well rounded mouthfeel. Flavoours of tangerine and lime. Fairly low bitterness.

Cask (@Wenlock Arms): Slightly hazy, almost no head, golden coloured; aromatic, a bit citrousy, hops dominate the bitter-fruity (a tinge of raspberries ?) nose; solid, bitter-sweet flavour, medium bodied, quite soft MF; fruity, citousy-hoppy finish, becoming drier towards the end. Good, chewy, aromatic stuff.........