2.8 AROMA 5/10 APPEARANCE 2/5 TASTE 6/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 12/20
[Cask at GBBF 2004] A hazy yellow beer with no head. The aroma is lightly grassy. The flavor is sweet hoppy with notes of grass and sirup leading to a dry finish.
2.3 AROMA 5/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 5/10 PALATE 2/5 OVERALL 8/20
Cask at GBBF
Godlen, toffee, buttery, herby and hoppy some bready yeast. Put overall very disappointing
2.4 AROMA 5/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 5/10 PALATE 2/5 OVERALL 9/20
Draught @ GBBF 2005: Golden coloured. Clear. Stale fruit and some citric notes in the aroma. Is buttery and light smoked. Thin bodied and vague. Ends on a light bitternote. This dosn’t do it for me. Ordinary and bland.
3.6 AROMA 7/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 8/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 15/20
Cask conditioned - gravity dispense - GBBF 2005. A golden coloured beer with a sticky lemony hop aroma. The taste is nice with lemons hops and good clean malty drinkability. The hops thended towards sticky which isn’t a bad thing. I was keen on this one.
2.9 AROMA 5/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 6/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 12/20
Cask (gravity dispense), GBBF, August 2005. I suppose it shouldn’t come as any surprise that when an American beer, in an English style, arrives here in cask, it’s not necessarily going to be any more exciting than it’s UK counterparts. This is a pale gold coloured beer with a whiff of butterscotch, some grassy hops and a touch of dull malt in the aroma. Cleaner and fresher on the palate than on the nose, but not exactly inspirational. A bit dull in fact.
3.7 AROMA 7/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 8/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 15/20
On tap at the ClamShell restaurant next door to the brewery:
The Lure:
Peppery, grapefruity C-hops seem to hover over a decent caramalt base. A blurry peach color propels the idea of oranges forward, confirmed by the hoppy presence.
The Festivities:
An extremely well-balanced and quaffable palette of flavors offers grapefruit and oranges ably supported by the purported earthy caramel. In the end, peppery hop bitterness morphs into resinous and then into woody, as a watery wash cleans off most residual hoppiness. The supple body induces quaffing which is very much welcomed in this case.
Transcendence:
Blinding sunrays bouncing off smiling cheeks at noon picnic.
1.9 AROMA 4/10 APPEARANCE 2/5 TASTE 3/10 PALATE 2/5 OVERALL 8/20
Cask@GBBF04’. Nasty pale ale. Sweet buttery and flabby, no bitterness, no interesting flavours, or flavour sensations, just a flabby buttery mess.
3 AROMA 6/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 6/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 12/20
[Cask conditioned] Amber coloured. Fairly fruity and hoppy. Not more robust or more hoppy than its British counterparts, but still a nice brew.
3.8 AROMA 8/10 APPEARANCE 5/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 15/20
2004 cask @ Coat of Arms in Portsmouth. Pours a mild copper-orange with a big white head. Heard from the bartender this was sent over to the GBBF 04. For their sake, I hope Duff wasnt the judge of this stuff!! Anyways, I can’t agree that this was nasty in the least bit (but who knows how it traveled). Here it was pleasantly floral, plenty of bitter hops here, very perfumy. Has tons of malt backbone though and is able to hold the hops. Quite a bit of carbonation on cask, which I didnt like, but it had a medium full body, earthy, malty body with a big fruity hops finish. Not horribly complex, but well-balanced and very tasty. What I would expect Sierra Nevada Pale ale to taste like on cask (though a bit less bitter than Sierra).
4.2 AROMA 10/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 17/20
On cask NERAX ’04: Clear amber with a small white head. The single greatest aroma, that I’ve ever smelled in a cask beer: Rich cookie, fresh straw and flowers. Wow. Soft medium bodied, starts and ends slightly bitter. Very fresh and a great beer.
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