Church End Rest in Peace (RIP)

Brewed by Church End
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Nuneaton, England

Serve in English pint

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Hand pulled at the Anchor, Birmingham, during Church End Weekend. Red gold, no head. Smell = clay, in a naan bread context, with some mulled berries also. Flavour is strong bricks, red berries + warm, mushy Xmas flavours hinted at too. Unbalanced. Random. Spins out on finish.

Cask conditioned at The Anchor, Birmingham. Clouded brown with no head. Fruity raw alcohol flavour, very difficult drinking. Not particularly pleasant.

UPDATED: JAN 7, 2009 Reddish half hand-pulled at the brewtap. Lots of alcohol, faint caramel and wood flavours (hops?). Nose rubbery and slightly sickbowly/citric like strong industrial cider. Increasingly musty hop presence as it warms. Not enough malt, caramel, complexity or anything but alcohol to really make much of an impression. Dull strong ale awash with Bavaria Red almond ethanol notes 533311 (Re-rate, 2005 vintage, cask handpull at the brewtap, Xmas Eve) Clear red amber with an initial collar diminishing to nothing. Jammy faint peach and apricot aroma to begin with, blending into Strawberry Chewit once the head’s gone. Tropical and stone fruit to fore; pineapple, peach and apricot. Wring of Warthog. Grass, almond and what tastes like oak creeping in, giving the alcohol away. Splash of mouthwashy harshness. Apricot and hop marmalade. Unsticky and still-bitter fruity sipper. Actually pretty very bloody good. All credit to Church for trying something like this.

An unusual beer. Amber/gold colour. I can see why its described as a bitter as it doesn’t really have the depth, fruit or power that you normally find in beers of this strength. But, whilst it has some hop, the levels are not that high and nor is the bitterness. Some residual sweetness. Perfectly pleasant but doesn’t quite hit the spot. It just doesn’t somehow have a big beer feel to it. On the other hand, its dangerously easy to drink for a beer of this strength. Cask (gravity dispense), White Cliffs Beer Festival, February 2005.

UPDATED: FEB 20, 2009 Feb 2005 Dover Fest. Sweet and pleasant. A mildly hoppy pale beer. OK. At this point I am settling into the festival and calming down. But Chris and Joe are starting to leave. [2.9]
Feb 2009 Dover Beer Festival. Alcohol. Plastic. Some bittering hops. Sweet. Not impressed with this. [2.4]

Well, it looks like a malt licquor. This is actually a powwerful bitter (well the beer festival described it thus). This has a light fruity aroma and alcohol vapours throughout. Nothing special.