Ballards Best Bitter

Brewed by Ballards
Style: Bitter
Petersfield, England

Serve in English pint

send corrections   |   shelftag   |   edit barcodes   |   add pic

UPDATED: SEP 27, 2009 Bottled at The London/Joet Gathering Chez Chris O. A slightly hazy golden coloured bitter with a fluffy white head. There is a bit of strawberry and straw in the aroma. The taste is nice with lemony citrus hops. A clean acceptable beer.Score 2.9
Subsequent rating scored 3.1. Average becomes 3.0

Bottle & Chris’ Place Nice, fruity aroma. Cloudy gold appearance. Flavour is bland, fruity and malty but thirst quenching. Not bad for an English bottle conditioned bitter.

Cask-conditioned @ Cricketers, Easton. Nutty malt and some earthy hops. Pleasant enough, full bodied but lacking flavour.

Pours nice with a white, creamy head. Copper in color with a nice malty taste. Fruity mouth hoppy aftertaste.

Bottle: Not the best, but there are far worse. This is fairly tame and bland, but its drinkable, typical caramelly malt with citrusy fuggles, only in smaller doses in this beers case. Probably better on cask, but i won't be searching it out any time soon

Founded in 1980 Ballard’s have been brewing at The Old Sawmill on the Hampshire / West Sussex border since 1988 when Francis Weston took over as head brewer. Ballard’s have won a few minor CAMRA awards over the years, but are probably best known for their annual bottle conditioned beers which each carry a different name and successively higher abv. Their best selling cask ale, Best Bitter, has only recently become available in bottle conditioned form. Mine was in poor condition (British microbreweries are still struggling with the art of bottle conditioning Bitter) but revealed a mild fruit base to support a very dry bitterness. There is nothing here to suggest this is worth hunting down for a bottle in better condition.

This is quite fruity for a bitter. The bottle conditioning gives the beer a sparkle and the hops a good fininsh.