Freeminer Waterloo

Brewed by Freeminer
Style: Bitter
Cinderford, England

Serve in English pint

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August 2002. Bottle. 4%. A bad bottle which looks like piss - a sort of slightly orangy yellow. The taste is like piss as well - thin and sour with lots of screaming acid. [1.9]
July 2004. Bottle Conditioned. BBE Feb 05. Relaunched with higher abv and a new label design. Tried against Orval and Youngs Special London Ale.
Opened with a noticeable "shush" and then foamed over. Aroma is fruit malt and is initially close in style to the Orval, but then the darker bitter notes come through and it moves closer to the Young’s. Yeasty, slightly beefy aroma with some metallic volatiles - this developed over the drinking to include some rubber, aged leather and mouldy bananas, though at points the aroma became quite flat and dull . Eventually some toffee and orange notes settled in, and the aroma did come back after a rest with a stange curried chocolate. The mouthfeel was the highest point of this beer and clearly outshone the other two - an inviting texture perfectly balanced between satisfying and refreshing - no prickles, but nice edges and corners. A clear: Wow! The malt flavours are harmoniously integrated with the oily hops. This is the one I want to keep on drinking. There is fruit, some orange, a touch of banana, some gentle tree bark bitterness and a honeyed dry bitter finish. The least assertive (sometimes even muted) flavours of the three, but somehow the most pleasant to drink. Hints of vanilla come through, alongside more orange, a suggestion of toffee and a bit of elderflower. The flavours do get stronger and range wider as the beer progresses. And the more I drink it the more I like it.
Overall the flavour lets this beer down badly - there's just not enough of it. This is a beautifully drinkable beer, but it could assert itself a little more. [3.2]

Aroma is sour, probably infected. Flavor confirms the infection. Not getting much of the original flavors.

Bottle. Aroma of lots of leather and yogurt. Flavor sour with citrus notes and some spice notes, surprisingly not that bad for a beer that’s clearly infected. Pretty light bodied. Though not too terrible...still infected. Odd that nobody’s rated this for a long time...didn’t taste too old.

Bottle. Pours a cloudy dirty orange with a thick off-white head. Aroma is sour--infected?? Flavor is also sour with some bland malt in the background. Seems that infection is common in these bottles. Would like to have gotten more of the base beer from this but unfortunately the infection covered it up pretty much completely. Somewhat drinkable, I guess... 6/4/5/3/11 (2.9/5)

50 cl bottle, Fargo. Amber colour, energetic bubbles visible. Thick foamy head (maybe an overzealous pour) with a subtle spicy hop/malt aroma. More carbonated than expected, although a nice flavor comes through - caramel., bubblegum, bready. Crisp finish, although I could have done without so much carbonation (I miss the flat ales of the UK!)

500 ml bottle. Despite being purchased and sampled only a few weeks after it debuted locally, a gusher upon opening and signs of an acidic and infected mess. I suspect this may have sat in an NSLC warehouse or at customs for a while before the retailer got his hands on it. Pours with a huge but mostly diminishing frothy and fizzy off-white head. Caramel, bready, and leafy aroma is accompanied by an acidic and tangy character. Quite sour with a touch of bready malts and earthy hops. Light bodied, fizzy but somewhat refreshing. It’s actually not that bad, but clearly infected. At close to $8 for a 500 ml bottle, I don’t know that I want to retry to see if this is a one-time thing. Of course, a bottling date so I’d know how fresh it was would help immensely.

Deep amber beer with a thick massive tan head that just doesn’t fade. Very hazy appearance. Woody aroma with a fairly pronounced tartness as well. There is also a fairly nice lightly toasty aroma. A little bit of caramel and soft dustiness. The sourness is quite pronounced and probably shows that this particular bottle is spoiled (but other ratings mention the same things I’ve seen). Thin-bodied but I can see little shadows of how this one was intended to be... but it isn’t there anymore.

Dirty orange amber with a massive bubbly head that requires a pause during the pour so that it doesn’t spill over. Aromas of toffee, apple, spice, and faint citrus zest. Lively palate with unusually high carbonation for a bitter, but lots of fruity, spicy flavour and nice toffee malt base. Very bitter citrus oil finish. A little unusual, perhaps due to the bottle conditioning, but very nice in my opinion.

Not really much of anything going on with this beer, and it was a considerable let down. An aroma of fresh cut green apples, with soft spicy hops. Amber in color with a huge, exploding head which sat clumsily atop the beer for a VERY long time. Mouthfeel was harsh and overly carbonated. Reminded me of drinking club soda (same effect). Flavor is mostly spicy hops, minerally with an overabundance of carbonation muddling up the whole beer. Difficult to finish.

From bottle. Sweet aroma of apples, almost like a cider in aroma. Good copper appearance decent white head. I keep getting apples, slightly metallic. Bitter sweet ale. Settles down to a decent smooth beer. I would pour the sediment in because it tastes better. Has a bite.

From the bottle ... this exploded from the bottle (guess the bottle conditioning is working and maybe I overchilled it). The head retains forever. Bit of an appley aroma. The body is watery. Flavor-wise this is tart and almost sour firstly, with a mild caramel undertow and a woodsy bitter bark bite ... but the sourness take over as I go, which detracts greatly to my palate. (#3084, 9/9/2007)