Caledonian Top Banana

Brewed by Caledonian (Heineken UK)
Style: Bitter
Edinburgh, Scotland

Serve in English pint

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UPDATED: SEP 16, 2009 May 2007 Cambridge Fest. Thin pale ale with a banana flavour that tastes false and chemical. Quite drinkable, but also quite daft. [2.4]
Aug, 2009 Banana aroma and flavour - artificial tasting with a bitter chemical after taste. Not attractive. Wish i hadn’t bought a pint. [2.1]

Tried this in the Saltcot, Saltcoats (JDW) in April 2007. Cask, handpump dispense. Clear pale amber in colour with a thin white head. Very slight hint of banana in the quick aroma. Thin insipid mouthfeel and poor lacing. Pale malt gives a poor weak weak base with no traditional Caley flavours evident. Slight banana note but is lost as hop resins kick in for the aftertaste. Bitter sweet in the short finish. Poor effort from Caley.

[cask at SRAF’09, Edinburgh] Unsurprisingly, a powerful banana aroma emanates from this golden, hazy beer. The flavour is of the same fruit, although more gentle than the aroma. Nice for a fruit beer though, reminded me of Wells&Young’s Banana Bread Beer – although an inferior version. Doesn’t have the malty component of that beer – more like a sweet palate cleanser. Thankfully not as sweet as Mongozo, however [25062009]

Cask (handpump) at the Willow Walk (JDW), Victoria, May 2007. Pale blond colour. Very lively. Distinct, strong and rather confected banana presence throughout. The banana is rather cloying on the palate. I think there is a light, citric golden beer hiding underneath but it’s tough to get to it through the banana. Thin mouthfeel with a hint of tart bitterness. OK if you are a banana fan I suppose but not my thing at all.

Cask @ The Blackfriar, Blackfriars, London EC4. Pours a clear golden color with a small white head. Has a fruity malty banana aroma. Sweetish malty banana flavor with some hoppy bitter hints. Has a sweetish malty banana finish.

Cask (handpump) @ JDW Wetherspoons, London, Greater London England.
Clear light to medium yellow orange color with a small to average, frothy, fair lacing, mostly diminishing, off-white to white head. Aroma is moderate to light heavy foam bananas, candy chocolate-coated foam banana. Flavor is moderate sweet and light light acidic with a average to long duration, artificial. Body is medium, texture is oily, carbonation is flat. [20090731]

Cask (Giddy Bridge JDW, Southampton) - Amber in colour. Banana and nuts in the aroma with some malty hints. Slightly sweet taste with malt and bananas featuring prominently. The finish is nutty and sweet with bananas noticeable.

Cask at Guildford Arms, Edinburgh. Clear golden coloured, small white head, low carbonation. The nose is hard to feel, dust with some banana hints. Biscuity malts, candy sugar and quite natural banana taste with notes of caramel and hops. Interesting but nothing special here, and to be honest I’ve expected much worse beer.

Cask conditioned at The Eagle & Child, Oxford. Amber with white head. Heavy sweet overpowering banana notes from the off, toffee caramel in the background, the whole thing is like toffee sweet sticks we used to have. Not very good.

Cask handpump at The Regal (Wetherspoons), Cambridge. Gold with a big head, toffee and banana scent. Thin. Sweet with no bitterness but some dryness. Tastes like banana milkshake. Some metal on the end.

Pours very creamy, looks like milkshake with head on until it settles to a yellow blonde pint. Aroma is like rubhard and custard sweets, some hops. Taste is quite unusual, sweet at first, some banana but slightly artificial tasting, like foam banana sweets, custardy sweetness and then a fairly sharp herbal finish. Not bad actually, certainly different.