Finchley’s Ales Golden Pale Ale

Aldi
Brewed at Batemans
Style: Bitter
Atherstone, England

Serve in English pint

send corrections   |   shelftag   |   edit barcodes   |   add pic

Bottled, pasteurised, 500ml from Aldi, Banbury. Burnished gold with white head. Over pasteurised tinny notes to the fore, a little on the boiled grainy side.Some saving hop around, but fairly bland and a touch dusty, past it. Not great.

Bottle. Golden with no head. Aromas are butter and sweet malts with citrus. Flavours are sweet grain and buttery malts with bitter, metallic notes. Dry on the finish. Lacks character.

Bottle picked up at Aldi, Aylesbury, Bucks, Nov 08, consumed 11-01-09. Pours mid-dark golden in colour with a metallic nose mixed with some malt. The metallic characteristics come through in the mouth along with some banana and toffee. There is fruitiness which adds a tang, but overall its a bit of a average beer no more no less. A5 A4 F5 P3 OV10 2.7

That signature Bateman’s pasteurised-to-death butterscotchy clear bottled boredom. Except this one is in a fancy brown bottle. Bronze with a dying slick of white. Toffee, marzipan, faintly musty boiled hop aroma. Plenty of stale almondy alcohol notes as it warms, buttery malt and tired, sickly, long-dead hops. Didn’t finish the bottle.

UPDATED: JAN 18, 2011 Sept, 2008 500ml bottle from Aldi. Batemans cask beers are OK, but the bottled beers suffer due to the processing - the filtering and pasteurising. It does not make them ugly, but it does reduce their pleasurability, and introduces unwanted flavours and characteristics. The beers do not become distinctively Batemans due to the processing, but they do become distinctively processed and produce flavours all too familiar with drinkers of pasteurised bottled British ales. I do not know why Batemans call this a golden ale as it is a run of the mill and very dull bitter with a colour only just emerging from amber into yellow. Bog standard pasteurised bitter. [2.3]
Jan, 2011 Buttery bottled British bitter. Few hops. Perhaps lighter in touch and colour than a standard bitter, but mainly unremarkable. Crisp carbonation. Malt is fairly laid back. Suggestion of wet cardboard. Not great, but drinkable. [2.4]

Clear gold in colour with slight carbonation. Skunky, boiled sweet and tired hop aroma. light mouth feel, with sweet, barley sugar flavours and a hint of a bitter finish. Another English pasteurised bottled beer failure - sink pour.

Bottle, From Grimsby Aldi. Gold, thin but lasting white head and moderate condition. Gentle honeyed sweetness and low lemon citrus in the nose, quite thin and dry in the mouth with a low hop note and a slight tang of citrus, short finish with a slightly stale oiliness.

50cl bottle from Aldi, Alfreton. Golden with a thin cream head; slighty spicy aroma of dusty hops; rather grainy and slighty sour flavour; the finish is acidic and stale with dry hop-pellet feel.

Bottle. Golden, clear and a bit lively upon opening.Not a lot of carbonation so my initial fears about it being over lively soon disappeared. Some hoppiness with a presence of fruit. A typical pleasant Batemans beer.

Pours dark amber with white head. Malts, caramel and some citrus aroma. Hoppy, a bit sweet-bitter flavor with tones of grapefruit. Round and nice on palate. Finish is bitter-hoppy which lasts for a quite a while.