Courage Best (Pasteurised)

Brewed by Wells & Youngs
Style: Bitter
Bedford, England

Serve in English pint

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Bottle. Pours a burnished gold. Caramel malts and a resinous hop quality. Slight sweetness that was unexpected. Fairly bland overall.

UPDATED: DEC 1, 2009 Midnight acquisition from Rugby Tossco (bottle). Still gold with a thin white lid collapsing to nothing. Nosebleed on cardboard, vegetable aroma warming with grass, honey and orange suggestions. Papery and a dab grassy with some OK honey-and-cream malt softness. Could almost have a couple of Honey and Lemon Lockets bobbing about in it. Saw it off in the end.
Earlier Rating: 9/15/2007 Total Score: 2.3
I’m afraid it’s back again. Sampled in an Irish pub(?) in Torquay before hitting the Guinness. Wish I hadn’t bothered. Red amber murk with best-a-man-can-get head. Faint curranty fruit, a trace of watery apple peel blandness. Dismal.

Bottle version, from Tesco Grimsby. Deep gold, good lasting white head and gentle condition. Initial muted bitter peppery hoppines in the nose with some low caramel malty sweetness, thin and gentle fruitiness at first in the mouth with a developing tinny and chalky hop bitterness backed with a quite sweet toffee note, brief bitter finish but still with a little sweetness around the edges.

UPDATED: OCT 14, 2011 440ml can from Tesco. Gold with a fast fading cream head; aroma of malt and caramel; somewhat stewed earthy malt flavours with sweet caramel and gentle bitterness to finish. Not bad for a cheap canned bitter. (4/3/4/2/12=2.5)

500ml bottle from Aldi. A straightforward, malty bitter, with a caramel finish - presumably less heavily pastuerised than the canned version. (6/3/6/2/13=3.0)

UPDATED: OCT 11, 2011 March 2009 440ml can in a four pack from Tesco. Moderately carbonated. Mild tasting. Not offensive. Quite drinkable in fact. This is much better than the old keg Best. [2.5]
Jan, 2011 Bottle. Crisp carbonation. Dry, session bitter with some herby hop notes, and a mild lingering bitterness. Drinkable and quite acceptable. Some malt flavours come through. This is a not a crap beer - there is clearly an attempt to make a decent enough brew. The processing is mainly felt in the carbonation - the pasteurisation is not really significant. Not a good quality drink, but OK enough. [2.7]
Oct, 2011 £1 a bottle at Morrisons. Drinkable and cheap. [2.8]
Earlier Rating: 3/6/2005 Total Score: 0.9
Sept, 2002: Keg, Kent. Tastes of weak, stale beer and old damp cardboard. [0.5]
August, 2004: Keg, Shipwrights Arms, Chatham. A rough local. Soft fruity aroma. Prickly mouthfeel from the co2. A nutty fruit. No hop awareness. Barely beer. [1.2]
August, 2006 <a href=http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/28/286 Charlotte/Rochester>Queen Charlotte, Rochester Keg Greasy cardboard. Rancid fruit. Cold and fizzy. This is dreadful. I’m really not sure why people drink this stuff. Dreadful. Offensive. [0.9]
Nov, 2008 Two Sawyers, Brompton Sour cardboard nonsense. [0.9]

IF YOU CAN’T SAY ANYTHING GOOD THEN DON’T SAY ANYTHING AT ALL. PARTICULARLY ABOUT THE DEAD.

Pretty bland and average. Not the worst beer you’ll get off tap and better than shit like John Smiths, Worthingtons and Tetleys Smooth etc.... but not much.

One of the FIRST beers I legally bought once I came of age and I got hooked on it. Nice webbing in the glass, good colour, no aftertaste. A great beer.

Fizzed and kegged. If it’s kegged then I suppose the best option is to go for a keg lager. At least the flavours wont be disgusting, and the hops foul, and the fuller body confused by all that fizzing.

Had this one with SilkTork in The Old Blue Last, legend has it that this pub was the first place to serve porter. Today this yellow swill (or Guinness) is about the best they can do. The Barmaid doesn’t even know what porter is. Enough about the pub, the beer was shit too, sweet pineapple aroma, flat old tasting malt, sweetness, honey and dust. Dull like British television.