Exmoor Stag

Brewed by Exmoor
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Taunton, England

Serve in English pint

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Cask Conditioned at a wetherspoons. Copper coloured beer with mid white head. Fine malty background, some biscuit, some toffee, overlaid with a sharp tangy hoppiness. There is fruit and citrus notes to the fore. Exmoor produce well crafted beers and this is no exeption.

Their flagship ale? Fairly dull stagnant (lol) nose without anything going offensive going on. Dulled brown body. Head non existant. A wholesome palate, but offering little in the way of taste or excitement. Walnut elements linger if you look hard enough. (Cask, ATP curated by Jeff Mangum during Jeff Mangum)

First tasted this in the Ale House, Paisley in May 1991. Cask, handpump dispense. Clear copper red in colour with a thick white head. Clear herbal note in the short lived aroma. Thin but resiny mouthfeel and good lacing. Pale malts give a fiery robust digestive biscuit note with woody tannins and tart gooseberries. Dry hop resins give a spicy bite to the short aftertaste. Finish is sweet and malty with soft butterscotch and raisin fruit evident and an increasing alcoholic warmth . An ok session bitter.

Cask, handpump @ The Holly Tree Inn, Exmouth, Devon.
Radiant, almost oily looking burnished copper body with a solid, compact white crown that holds on for the length. Tinny, metallic and herbal raw hop and caramel nose, a little musty, stale. While the aroma was hop dominated it switched polarity in the mouth. Big, sweet crystal malt flavours, toffee, vanillin and Anzac biscuits up front, becoming earthy and musty as it moves back before a nice, needed, bitter peak on the swallow. Drops off long with burnt toast and peat-like malt showing, lingering along with the crystal in the mouth. The body is relatively light, shows nice balance between sweet and dry. Nothing here really grabbed me, uniquely flavoured but lacks in charm.

Cask, Old Mill, Woolacombe. Amber with a thin white foam.  Aromas are toffee and raisins with lemon and medicinal notes.  Weetabix with caramel and roast malts.  Flavours are vinous fruit with raisins and burnt toffee.  Herbal with some citrus.  Dry on the finish. A nice fruity beer.  

[Cask at Tremenheere (JDW), Penzance] Pours a slightly cloudy amber. Smells sweet and malty. The taste made me think somewhat oddly of sweetened peat bog. Which was a bit disconcerting when I’d been hiking through peat bog earlier that day. Not entirely unpleasant, but definitely too sweet.

Cask. Hazy amber colour with small off-white head. Aroma is grass, wood, mild herbs and some bready malts. Flavour is much the same with some mild floral notes as well. Quite smooth.

Cask at O’Connell’s, Tampere, Finland.
Slightly hazy amber colour with small creamy off-white head. Mild bitter hops in aroma. Flavour is also rather mild with malt, bitter hops and some sweetness. Smooth and creamy but also a bit watery. Not much carbonation.

Cask (Kuikka, Helsinki)
Reddy orange, small loose head. Really raw green hop flower aroma. Watery palate, carbonation low. Very appley retronasals - green apples. Sweet caramalt body, but separate from that there’s a big fresh hoppy drive, and I mean really raw hops. Finish slightly sticky and with bitter hops, but with a touch of caramel too. Has everything an ale needs. Tastes a little old, so this can probably be stunning when fresh.

Cask - White Cliffs Festival 2010, Dover. Clear copper in colour with a fine, disappearing off-white head. Dominated by sulphur on the nose with light caramel struggling past. Again, sulphur dominated here on the tongue with an apple skin acidity and a toasty malt component. Light-medium body, a subtly fizz and a short, dry bitterness.

Cask-conditioned at the Knights Templar (JDW), Bristol 09/06/09. Deep amber with a decent, off-white head. Sweet, caramel and red fruit aroma. Flavour was also sweet, with some marmalade, earthy hops and a short bitter finish. Ok.