500 ml brown bottle, courtesy of Cardinal pub, Stavanger. ABV is 4.3%. This beer is apparently named after the original idea of "painting the town red" (see label). Listen, taggers and other vandals: it might have seemed funny the first time, but it’s not funny any more! The beer is more brown than red, slightly hazy, and pours with a moderate to low head. Are you sure this beer is not bottle conditioned? Moderate carbonation, soft mouthfeel. Pleasant aroma of malts, earth, caramel, blackcurrant leaves and dark fruits. Flavour is perfectly balanced between the malts and hops, not too sweet, despite some caramel in the background - no off-flavours here: Melton Red tastes like BEER, and a damn good one too!

Rich, full tasting bitter, bittersweet. Some dried fruit, some summer flowers. A few pints of this on cask in the back garden of a pub would be just the thing.

500 ml bottle. Small dense and mostly lasting greyish head. Light brown colored body with a hue of red and a light haze. Inviting aromas of berries, plums, dark dried fruits and caramel. Soft, but well rounded and complex taste. Moderately sweet maltiness with a proper amount of mild bittering hops and a nice underlaying fruitiness. Light to medium body. Lingering, gently bitter finish. Nice.

Aromas are biscuit malts and peppery hops. Tan in colour this pours with a dense head of foam. Flavours are hoppy to almost IPA levels. Nice smooth malts with a chalk dry finish.

Bottled. Chestnut coloured, good head and condition. Caramel and toffee nose with background of peppery hop resin. Smokey malt and toffee in the mouth with a good hop bitterness, and a malty sweet finish laced with hop flavour.