Double Diamond Original Burton Ale

Formerly brewed at Leeds (Carlsberg UK)
Style: Bitter
Leeds, England

Serve in English pint

Canned, clear orange colour, creamy white head. Smell is malty and bitter. So far so good, looks like a more promising one than Caffreys Irish Ale, but no. Once you taste this one you get the big surprise, it’s very watery and the only taste I find is a very sour one. The taste completely spoils the beer imo. It gets worse and worse the warmer it gets. Plus points for that it looks nice, and it feels good in the mouth (with taste not counted). But that’s almost the only positive things.

440ml "caskflow" can. Deep gold to orange appearance, expected tight creamy white head. Malty aroma. Starts very watery and bland then some malt and a dash of bitterness kicks in at the finish. I remember this beer having a lot more character years ago, I think it might be another victim of the widget.

Poor aftertaste OK burp if you dare.Smell’s like pig iron. Could not finnish. But nice looking container.Heavy malt rancid molasses cream.

Long ago in a galaxy far, far away, when British beers ruled my drinking expoerience, I thought this quite decent. Consider it now among the BMC’s of England.

With this beers upstanding proud Burton history, nothing could possibly go wrong? Or could it!!! It seems globalisation and dreaded pasteurisation have killed another innocent bystander. Tasted in the Draughtflow can, The colour (light yellow gold) was the first giveaway to what used to be an Amber Pale Ale. Taste was Slight, watery and unbalanced with nothing standing out. Short aftertaste left you searching for the beer somewwhere hidden inside the pint. Gave it another shot on Draught, hoping I just got a bad batch, but the same ’Beer’? presented it’s ugly head. Shame on mass marketting for it’s blind perception of what the beer drinking public wants.

UPDATED: NOV 2, 2004 Double Diamond HAS CHANGED! A recent shift from bitters and stouts to lagers and pilsners in the comonwealth world {like my beloved Canada} has caused MASIVE declinens in the export market for some wonderfull oldworld crafted ales, and fearing bankrupsy many bitter brewers have changed their recipie dramaticaly, to try to keep up with a steady rise in carlsberg sales. Untill now the biggest example of this was Bass {now under bankrupsy protection} , reducing the bitter level by 70%, and then changing the malt to change our beloved coper pale ale into a golden ale, the color that wrongly comes to the mind of most north americans when you say an ale is "pale" . But I digress. The new Double Diamond comes in a new "Caskflow" can, a system very similar to the famous guinness "Draughtflow", except that this wiget is hard fassened to the bottom of the can. On pour the change is obvious. Cream ale style rise, foamy guinness like head. No carbonation left in beer after rise. Colour unchanged. Clasic coper pale ale. Bland aroma, sour on the nose like spoiled apple. taste. ALL WRONG!! not a Burton ale at all. cream flavour, sweet, smoth, mild malt hiding in the corner of my mouth, no hop to speak of. Oily mouthfeel. After taste remenesent of sour welsh ale, cloying on the molars. Sad tear comes to my eye. Previousley double dimond was one of my perferd ales. In pubs or in bottles from my local shop, it had the perfect not too bitter flavour for a cold summer night. {I cant get enough hop in the heat though} then it dissapered of the shelves. at my local they taped a new keg one day and suddenly it pulled like a cream ale. then today I see them stocking the shelves with not bottles but cans. Filled with joy I rushed home with 2 cans, and upon pouring I was alread disapointed. Bitter fans STAY away from the new Double Diamond, However, Killkey and Bodington fans aswell as fans of welsh ale should give this new cream ale a try {even though the can calls it a Burton ale}

Average bitter pale ale, has the typical bitter English finish and some sweet malts. I though this was a lot like Bass.

Clear orange amber color, medium, fugaceous, rocky white head. Very shy aroma of hops and malt. I feel no hops flavor at all except for a light bitterness, it’s mostly malty and fruity. Bitter finish of a low intensity. Light to medium body, oily texture, soft carbonation. It’s very oily for a bitter and I feel it’s pretty much bland and ordinary.