Barnsley Beer Company Owd Tyke

Brewed by Wentworth
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Rotherham, England

Bottled. A dark brown coloured headless beer. This is an odd mish mash of a beer which has too much going on for its own good but some of that is pretty god. Burnt coffee, plums and raspberry jam in the mouth together with big bitterness. The nose has fruits maltiness and the tell-tale cardboard. It really is an oddball beer but certainly drinkable in spite of the odd acidity that comes through later.

Bottle, B&M. Mahogany coloured with decent off white head. Smells like a working mens club. The two guys below me have done a much better job of explaining the beer. I liked it more than my esteemed colleagues it would seem though. All I’ll say is Carlos Tevez is a judas bitch.

Deep chestnut with a thin persisting beige lid. Nose a pleasant enough confusion of earthy malt and yeast, walnut, redcurrant, ash, strawberry chocolate mice. Generic fizz and astringency dragging down what decent hops and malts there may be beneath; light notes of sick, oak, chocolate, red berries, grapefruit, everything swallowed by that insistent shampoo/burnt nut bitterness. One of those beers that just tries too hard to be characterful and bitter, without the class to quite pull it off.

Bottle, from Rhythm & Booze, Barton. Deep ruby red, thin shortlived white head and low condition. Gentle fruity berry nose with low coffee ground and a slight chocolate edge, soft and tangy in the mouth with a developing bitterness that soon takes over, persisting into the finish to its detriment