Beer Engine Piston Bitter

Brewed by Beer Engine
Style: Bitter
Exeter, England

Serve in English pint

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Cask Conditioned at The Beer Engine, Newton St Cyres, Devon. Amber coloured with white head. Malty but lightly flavoured bitter with an orange note. Fresh dry hop finish, slightly powdery and grainy.

500ml brown bottle with a comical label of a train loaded with brewing equipment. 4.2%. The label also says it was brewed and bottled for ’The Beer Engine’, but not by who and where. Best by Nov 2007, drank in Dec 2006. Tawny brown, clean looking in my sleeved pint glass, very thin white wispy head sat on top, loads of bubbled rising through the beer,they are not however helping the head to grow or stay. Aroma, caramel, but not sweet or toffee apple, hops and a splash of malt also in the air. Very dry, too dry for my tastebuds. the dryness is there from the first sip until the last and lingers in the mouth. I have two more bottles in the garage, they will now move from my personal stash, to the ’visitors allowed to drink them’ area. Not a bad beer by any standard, but just a bit dry for me.

Cask, handpump @ The Beer Engine, Newton St. Cyres, Devon.
Didn’t seem in top form when I tried this one. Or maybe it was me!? Deep tawny amber and bright as bright with a depleting white fluff atop. Yeasty, sulphury and oddly phenolic, plastic and burnt matchstick nose with just a hint of grass, toffee and earth. The aroma is very shortlived like the head. First mouthful has a lot of burnt nastiness, phenolic and husky, astringent and bitter malt more than hop in back. Very earthy and musty in the swallow. Settles out to reveal some burnt wood and old staling rye bread on the mid-palate. The body is light, even thin and slightly oily, soft and still. It seems to get better the more I drank, but that seems normal as alcohol kicks in. Unimpressive as it is, but given prior ratings its justifiably a dud batch. Bummer as it’s possibly my last visit!

Cask. An amber beer with a white head. The aroma has notes of malt and fruits. The flavor is sweet with notes of malt, fruits, and some hops, leading to a bitter finish.

Cask Handpump at the Fat Cat, Sheffield 16/01/2010 Pale hop and grain aroma. Amber coloured fruity and hoppy with a crisp and slightly dry lasting malt finish.

bottle. Amber colour, persistent and creamy head. Very malty, hoppy and slightly bitter only in the finish and aftertaste.

Cask handpump at Cambridge BF ’07. Amber with a curious musty aroma. Malty taste, slight sourness and a hint of cardboard. Low bitterness. OK, I suppose.

Bottle picked up at Darts Farm, Topsham, Nr Exeter, Devon 12-11-06 had the same evening. Amber in colour with a strange slightly gasseous nose, though not unpleasant tasted absolutely fine but soft, malty and some bittereness but all in all a tad bland.

Appealing ginger colour. Malty aroma with some caramel. Mainly sweetish malt flavour, with some balancing hops coming through later on. A suggestion of cardboard creeps in too. Not bad, but not really my favoured style of bitter. My bottle was 4.2% abv. 500ml bottle (not bottle conditioned) from onlyfinebeer. BBE 31 July 2004.