Elland Halifax Bomber

Formerly brewed at Elland
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Elland, England

Serve in English pint

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Darkish and with a pungent malty flavour, I was quite surprised that the alcohol content is as high as 4.8%. Is it just me, or does it lack complexity? Pleasant enough, but it really didn’t push the right buttons..

1. Cask Handpump at the Ship & Mitre, Liverpool 16/06/2002 Clear amber coloured and citrus flavoured with a dry hop finish. 2. Cask Stillage at the Memorial Hall, Northwich 21/09/2002 Amber golden coloured and fruity with a slightly bitter finish.

Cask@Ealing BF. Some lightly sweet toffee malt notes to start with, becoming dry and more grainy. Kind of a wholemeal type grain character. Earthy and typically English in flavour. Finish shows some slightly leafy citric hops. Finish is quite dry.

Cask half pint at NERAX on 5/3/06
Strongly beige, almost single-malt colored body, with a touch of chestnut and a very foamy off-white/beige head that is retained well and provides spotty lacing. Very high clarity.
Very dry, EKG-like aroma is almost dusty, with some very dry straw, nutty, maris otter malt maybe? Whatever it is, it’s almost oily, with a dry cherryskin-meets-amaretto note with a hint of earthiness and some heavy drying, unfortunately cardboard-like on the end.
Though the yeast has dropped, the flavor opens up VERY nutty, very dry, heavily attenuated and with the oily-semi-sweet floor malts that produce plenty of nuts and moderate earthiness on the end. Tingly carbonation is actually quite strong for a cask ale, and I’m not sure if it works in the beer’s favor or not. It certainly adds a refreshing snappiness to the texture, but could break up some much needed sweetness/malt-softness. Minimally herbal, dusty, straw-like hops show almost no bitterness and little flavor. Not watery at all, though, for the style, with no alcohol and nearly imperceptible diacetyl levels.