3 AROMA 5/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 6/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 12/20
Purchased at the New Delight Inn near Heptonstall and Hebden Bridge, Bridestones’ brewery tap, during my recent beer trip to West Yorkshire. Coming in a 500ml brown bottle, not bottle-conditioned; BBE May 2010, served cool in a straight imperial pint glass. NOTE: according to the barmaid at the pub, this is the bottled version of the cask-conditioned “Bottleneck”.
Appearance: pours a clear, lightly-fizzed pale golden hue, coming with a well-lasting light beige froth on the top.
Aroma: bitter-sweet citrus fruits abound as opposed to a super light, slightly grainy body of malts; a close sniff gives away hints of floral & earthy hops and a fine whiff of wheat malts. Not particularly aromatic – understated even.
Flavour: the foretaste is surprisingly full of strongly flavoured wet-earthy, stinky-muddy English dried hops (ringing a bell of Challenger to me), with interesting phenolic notes lagging behind, while a stream of dry bitterness follows closely along with just a mild taste of light, wheat-ish malts. Pretty clean in the finish, as well as a little dry and spicy(?).
Palate&Overall: like the other bottled ale purchased from the pub, “Coiners”, the carbonation at first comes somewhat lively but soon settles to a minimally-carbonated palate, quite suitable for the bitter hop profile. I tried this ale on cask at the pub, and it was undoubtedly superior. But the flavour sealed in this bottle still rings true of the clean hop-malt profile that I enjoyed so much at the pub through a sparkler pour – in a sense, the flavour elements here are free from complication by an aerated mouthfeel! A decent example of Blond Bitter overall, but maybe not for those who do not fancy English hop mixture!
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