Bass Extra Smooth/Beer (nitro 3.8%)

Brewed by Samlesbury (InBev UK)
Style: Bitter
Preston, England

Serve in English pint

send corrections   |   shelftag   |   edit barcodes   |   add pic

Keg on P&O ferry from Calais to Dover. Has the stewed cardboard hops flavour of a pasturised beer, but is otherwise inoffensive and reasonably drinkable. If the crossing had not been so choppy as to make walking to the bar difficult I might have had a second pint. Good companian to a P&O cheese & onion pasty.

3,8% deep amber with a good head, not much aroma (not like the smelly sock smell of the old Bass), slightly watery bitter taste.

A really mid level brown ale with a well carbonated core that keeps a simple bitter’s white head above the normal Bass water. Clean cut caramel and fresh straw notes, fizzing yellow body and an initial digestive biscuit palate. Dry finish from the carbonation and stays impressively flavoursome to the dregs. A suprisingly frowned upon beer brand - mainly by those assume superiority because they drink Guinness instead of Harp/Tennants - but tighter in many aspects than a Newcy Broon, without needing to exceed its basic bitter principles. (Keg, Curran’s Bar, Chapletown (Anna Gilchrist’s 21st))

Keg at the Holiday Inn, Winchester. Deep amber with a large dense creamy nitro head which completely masked the aroma; the taste was fruity and slightly sour, giving only a vague recollection of "real" Bass. Drinkable, but lacking in all departments, and a waste of good brand name.
Earlier Rating: 8/12/2008 Total Score: 2.4
500cl can from Plonkers, Derby. Amber with a dense off-white head; malty aroma; malty flavour, slightly bitter finish with a trace of the characteristic Bass taste, but not a patch on the original.

Keg "Bass Extra Smooth", Bar Est, Luton Airport. Cereal, malt, caramel and toffee, well-balanced with some hoppy aromas, but not much going on. Pours a thick creamy smooth white head. Slightly hazy brown body. Gentle bitterness. Bitter finish. Ar3 Ap3 Ta4 Pa3 Ov12

Draught at Bygones Bistro, Whittlesey. A very bland keg bitter which has a malty taste but is rather unpleasant

Poured nice and golden with a fluffy head that faded quickly tasted like bananas and malts with plain flat aftertaste boring

On-tap. A - Amber/orangish with a decent sized off-white head. S - Malty and caramel/toffee with very slight hints of fruit. Classical British smells in Pale Ales. T - Caramel and toffee along with very slight nuttiness are the main flavors. There is some buttery taste as well. Slight apple and honey. The normal British flavors of caramel/toffee/bready but a little lackluster and watery. M - Fairly light and thin but also quite smooth. D - Easy to drink and nothing offensive, A lot like a lot of British beers in terms of sessionability (however the flavor doesn’t quite match some of those great British session beers). Notes: This is one of those beers that is a good stepping stone and introduction. Shows off the typical flavors that you think of in British beers, just not as well as some other good ones.

(Nitro keg at Huxley’s, London Heathrow Terminal 5, 26 July 2009, labeled Bass Extra Smooth. I guess this is the one) Amber colour with creamy, off-white head. Malty, slightly nutty nose with a touch of caramel. Malty, nutty taste with notes of caramel and toffee. Below medium body, smooth mouthfeel. Fairly dry. Hardly exciting but drinkable.

(Can 50 cl) Courtesy of KimJohansen. Clear amber golden with a dense and creamy off-white head. Light fruitiness and caramel in the nose. Light-bodied with sweetish caramel and an almost absent bitterness. But nice and drinkable. 270408