Cottage DB5

Brewed by Cottage
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Castle Cary, England

Serve in English pint

Cask-conditioned at the Staple Hill Oak (JDW), Bristol 30/10/10. Deep amber in colour with a billowy, off-white head. Aroma of oranges, floral hops and diacetyl. Flavour was sweet, with butter scotch cystallised citrus fruit and juicy hops, before a dry, slightly sulphurous finish. Ok.

Cask Handpump at the Ship & Mitre, Liverpool 02/03/2008 Floral hop aroma. Golden amber coloured fruity and a little pale with a crisp and slightly bitter full malt finish.

Cask (handpump) at The Edgar Wallace, Strand. Golden amber colour with a thin white head. Slightly cloudy. Toffee, with a hint of diacetyl on the nose. More caramel on the palate, backed up by some decent resinous hop character. Light, herbal bite on the finish. Drinkable enough but tasted a little tired to me. I’m sure the diacetyl wasn’t intended.

Cask conditioned at The Woolpack, Banbury. Pale amber with white head. A step up for Cottage (Rick will enjoy this!) slightly perfumed and relatively hoppy in an oily, tea ish sort of way. Perhaps a little flabby, but still a decent Premium bitter.

The Greyhound, Sutton Stop, Coventry. Deep gold lidded with white. Didn’t know what style to enter this under, so I’ve let the hops decide. Lip-smacking juicy American citrus, wet dunked biscuit and tea-like malt. Dense, citrussy and floral. Mandarin cheesecake with full hop back-up. Nice.