Boddingtons Draught Bitter (Can)

Brewed by Magor (InBev UK)
Style: Bitter
Caldicot, Wales

Serve in English pint

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440ml can, 3.5% abv, shared on the train to Euston, London. Nitro, creamy head over a copper-like body. Very weak on aroma, some sweet malts. Sweet flavoured water with a few notes of roastiness and a very discreet bitter end. Nonoffensive, but has got very little to offer (05.05.2009).

I notice that the version exported to America has a higher abv. The whole point of a session beer is that it is low in alcohol so that a lot can be drunk. It should be soft in body and flavour so that it doesn’t intrude on the pub or party atmosphere and conversation. Boddy’s certainly scores on that count. Unobtrusive to the point that it slips down completely un-noticed. Did I have a beer, or did I just inhale wet air? They’ve been brewing this stuff in Manchester for over 200 years, but no one noticed until Worthington bought the brewery and started promoting the beer nationwide. There are genuine beer-loving people (mostly those from the Northern part of England, where they have developed a taste for soft, creamy beers with large frothy heads) who hold a fondness for the cask (not keg) version of this beer. Now under Interbrew’s control, the future of the cask version is constantly in doubt and is not often seen in pubs. However, the canned and kegged versions are all over Britain like a rash, and are spreading like some insidious, silent disease all over the planet. I’m in somebody’s house - ’Would you like a drink?’ I’m asked. ’A beer would be nice,’ I reply. A can of Boddy is produced and thrust into my hand. My smile of gratitude is very thin indeed. It’s a bit gorgeous? I think not!

Slight honeyish malt aroma. Amber, after the effect of the widget no carbonation left, but the 2 centimeters of creamy head seems to linger on. A bit strawberries, a bit flowers, but everything seems to be in a extreme homeopathic solution - quite watery. Mouthfeel is somewhat creamy and there is a very slight flowery aftertaste

Served ice cold at Old Trafford, Manchester. Hazy brown with llots of bubbles and artificial-looking head. Hardly any flavour, watery and uninteresting. I did not finish my glass of this!

(Keg at Bridge Bar, Heathrow Airport, London, 5 Aug) Colour is amber with a dense white head leaving lots of lacing. Nose is fruity with apricots, mandarin, mango and slighly chemical notes of butter-scotch. Taste is fruity with apricots and orange, some malt and very modest hops in the finsih. Rather artificial, like water with instant beer taste. No technical fault, but boring stuff.

Canned widget beer. Golden coloured with a thick, white head. Slight smell of hops. Taste was subdued and thin, some hops again with, as noted below, a metallic finish. Seriously bland.

Can at home in London. Pours clear, pale orange-gold with a weak, creamy head. Aroma gives off some light leaves, toast and honey. Light sweet flavor with some toasty bread, toasty sugar, faint stale leafy bitterness and hints of caramel. Light bodied and flat. Mild sweet finish with some dry and toasty malts, weak and dry caramel, faint wet leaves. Just an all around mediocre bitter. A bit disrespectful, really.

A curious aroma which puzzled me for a long time until I remembered the late summer scent of nasturtiums in an English Country Garden. The colour was an artificial looking gold that made me think of Lucozade. The taste was woolly and indistinct. Didn’t like this.

Creamy head and flavour with little aroma (like most English bitters). I think it is reasonable.

Can in Knightsbridge (slumming, surely.) Golden body with pop-up head. Sweet and malty nose. Flavour a bit bitter. Creamy and smooth texture. Hoppy finish.