Cottage Triumph Spitfire

Brewed by Cottage
Style: Bitter
Castle Cary, England

Serve in English pint

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[Cask at the Bootlegger, High Wycombe] Considering the dreadful slop that Cottage normally serve up, this is actually not too bad. Pours a reddish brown with a thin off-white head. Chocolatey malts dominate with just a hint of dusty, earthy hops coming through. OK.

This cask pint was poured into a UK sleeve during the excellent 31st Telford Beer Festival (Sep 2011) where 34 hand pulls at ‘The Crown Inn’, Oakengates are used. Cottage produce a huge amount of different beers, this one is from their ‘car collection’. A true dark mild in looks; with the traditional creamy head of tan coloured foam as a topping. The head staying as the tasting progressed. The smell was the regular burnt/roasted malts you’d expect from a good dark mild, this was however very strong compared to some I’ve reviewed and had over the years. Taste wise it followed the aroma, being malty and overcooked in flavour, very little hop content to be found. I found hints of chocolate with weak black coffee within the flavours. Mid-range on the sweet/bitter findings; the malted barley’s natural sweetness being nullified by the burnt feeling and lack of hops. The beer was both smooth and soft in the mouth, in fact a very nice pint all round. I almost thought it a Porter class, but stuck with Dark Mild because I thought it suited the style just a little more.