Greene King Abbot Reserve (Cask)

Brewed by Greene King
Style: English Strong Ale
Bury St. Edmunds, England

Serve in English pint, Trappist glass

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Cask conditioned at a Wetherspoons. Copper with no head. A very tired beer indeed this one, the festival started off so well, but its legs are going I think. Sweet, butterscotch, tea leaves and vinegar, a heady brew, not. The alcohol stands out a little too much. I left after 3 quite poor brews on the trot or maybe its more to do with cellarmanship, anyhow, you can only rate what you see.

Small cream-coloured head over deep foxy-amber beer. Aroma as caramel diluted in rainwater. Very faint touch of sulphur. Caramel and toffee, but with a bitter edge that is not quite hoppy - at least partly roasted. Again rainwater streak, and parsley on the palate. It’s anything BUT rich, it feels thinnish, and force-carbonated. Probably not a patch on the cask version, but at least it gets into Belgium this way.

Aug 2009: Clear 500ml bottle, poured into a ’Palm Special’ bulbous tulip glass (twice). Lovely reddy brown coloured body, clear and clean, a well formed off-white, tan coloured, creamy head sat on top with both pours. The aroma was of molasses and toffee, sweet for a normal UK ale. The sweet malts/molasses hit your tastebuds straight away, a dry bitterness follows in the aftertaste as the hops kick in. The rear label mentions fruit cake flavours, but I didn’t detect any cake on my palate, this isn’t a rich fruit cake beer; having said that, it is full bodied and very pleasnt to drink. My tasting was on a sunny afternoon, this is a cold evening by the fire sort of beer. Greene King get a lot of bad press from a lot of the UK CAMRA guys, and I often join in. I’ll have to think twice now before having a go at the brewery if they are producing such good beers as this on a regular basis.

Quite a reddish colour - a little darker than the regular Aboot ale. Alcohol aromas hint at the powerful flavour experience. Fruity aromas quite sweet and toffee like. The alcohol flavour dominates a little but good for a mass market beer. One of Greene King’s better ones.

50 cl bottle.
Rated on 20110325.
Pours clear red color with small head. Aroma of ripe fruits and malts. Flavor of grass, fruits and caramelly malts.
3324

Pours a bright and radiant tawny copper interspersed with a sparse array of minute bubbles. Compact and tight off-white crown has a satiny sheen to it, holds and laces well. Heavily nutty and rusty nose with licks of dust, old oak barrels, barnyard stale malt, toffee and burnt toast. Quite sweet in the mouth, lots of toffee and caramelised sugars, earth, dust, astringent, tannic malts and heaps of rusty notes in back with an odd lubricating buttery edge. Swallow is just a continuation of the problem. Burnt toast is pronounced mid-palate and in the aftertaste. Frothy, foamy mouthfeel, good body but not big or consuming. Finishable but sadly not pleasurable. Gone is the ’Abbot’! (50cL, no date stamp [fresh shipment], Cellarrations Kinross)

6.5% deep amber with a thin head, caramel toffee aroma, sweet caramel malt but bitter taste, very nice.

Tasted this in the Esquire House, Glasgow (JDW) in November 2007. Cask, handpump dispense. Clear copper red in colour with a thin white head. Strong malty aroma with hints of raisins. Creamy mouthfeel and good lacing. Mixed complex malts deliver a rich christmas cake base laced with moist raisins, ripe figs, soft caramel and maple syrup flavours. There is a slight prickle of spicy hop resins but the aftertaste is extremely short lived as malt returns very quickly. The finish has a sweet sherry like alcoholic edge to it which is silky smooth and very easy to drink. A lovely Strong Ale and one to look out for. Highly recommended and can be exceptional when on form.

A - fruity with alcohol A - mid orange with thick head T - light sweet with strong alcohol P - mid O - ehhhh...

Bottle. Copper body, white head. Aroma has nice malty butterscotch, chocolate and hint of cheese. Flavour is rich with malt, butter and nuts. Slight fruity bitterness.

Alcohol way dominant in this - some pleasant sweet malt and a hint of fruit showing through - maybe strawberry? But overall not a great beer.