Blackwater Pre-Raphaelite

Brewed by Salopian
Style: Bitter
Shrewsbury, England

Serve in English pint

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Cask conditioned at Far From the Madding Crowd, Oxford. Burnished gold with white head. Straight into a juicy mix of citric, grapefruity, lemony hops that are crisp, refreshing and very tasty. All this on a middle range biscuity, malt. Very pleasant.

Cask pint: hand-pulled in a local pub (White Lion, Wellington; Shropshire). This pub majors on beers brewed up the road by Salopian although it also stocks other breweries beers too. Pleasant golden colour, a bit light for my ideal UK bitter, but it looked in good condition and the head of white foam produced some good lacing. The nose was predominantly of citrus flavoured hops: pink grape fruit being my choice of aroma. The taste had an easy blend of those grapefruits mentioned in the nose with a baked bread maltiness that balanced each other nicely. The beer initially started off citrusy, the malts then arrived before the hop bitterness finished off each sip. The 4.5% ABV sat well in the body and the whole experience was most enjoyable.

Cask conditioned Handpump Old Fountain London. A golden beer with a white head and lacing. This was spoiled by diacetyl which is a great shame as Salopian/Blackwater beers are usually hoppily lovely. The hoppiness is hinted at but the diacetyl just gets in the way. A great shame.