Dark Star Hophead

Brewed by Dark Star
Style: Golden Ale/Blond Ale
Horsham, England

Serve in English pint, Shaker

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Clear gold with a white head, nice lace. Hoppy citrus and grapefruit aroma. Sweet biscuity malt with a nice citric hop kick behind it. Quite dry, very refreshing. Full bodied smooth. Nice.

UPDATED: OCT 7, 2011 Hand pulled at the Head of Steam, Euston. Yellow, with a medium head. Fresh aroma. Very tasty Blond ale, full of hoppy, dry notes. Crispy throughout the pint, gently becoming more rounded. Less juicy than I remember, but still one of the best of the style and a great session ale. (6/12/2004). RE-RATE: To make up for my low original rating, I wish to acknowledge the blisteringly good pint of Hophead I greedily supped on Wednesday. What a way to roll back the years: bright yellow, squelchy citrus freshness, with beautiful hop length. This deserves a 4.1, so that’s what it can have. (original score was 3.7).

Cask conditioned at the Twickenham Beer Festival. This beer is rather pale, light bodied, very hoppy & full of citrus.

The colour is clear yellow with a tint of gold. The foam is finger-think, white and built by small bubbles. The smell is very weak, but I could perceive some strains of leaven. The carbonation is mild. The taste is dominated by newly baked loaf and sour fruit drops. The aftertaste contains a buttery bitterness with hints of pineapple and grapefruits. The whole experience got a slight chemical touch. When I look through this review, I find it more negative than I intended. I think that this ale is quite OK, but it had some small details that just didn’t work together. It may be a case of a cask on its way to go skunky

Pale ale with a dry/slightly malty aroma and dry flavour. Overall a plain pale beer.

A pale ale witha lovely grapefruit aroma. A burst of hops hits the taste buds leading to a satisfying bitter finish. As rated by <A HREF=http://www.qualityales.com>Quality Ales

Cask@Catford Beer festival. Nice one, quite light, but covers the palate nicely, aromatic hops, orangey, flowery, great balance, and lots of flavour for a beer with only 3.8%ABV.

UPDATED: MAY 29, 2012 Cask conditioned - handpump - Evening Star Brighton. An extremly light golden colour to this beer which has a very hoppy aroma predominantly of grapefruit. The taste is also very hoppy like some American IPAs; however the nose is stronger. A very tasty beer with much more flavour than its ABV suggests.Score 3.9
Subsequent ratings scored 3.8, 3.9, 3.4, 3.7, 4.1 and 3.7. Score becomes 3.8

Cask Conditioned @ Reading Festival and elsewhere. A modern American style bitter that bursts the floodbanks, breaks through the heart and bleeds citric juice all over the place. High and mighty and standing proud as a wounded soldier.

Cask conditioned @ Reading Beer Festival. Floral grapefruit hop attack. A touch of malty sweetness but the hops rule. SImple but oh so nice. Spritzy carnonation spoils the refreshing body.