Hampshire Bohemian Rhapsody

Formerly brewed at Hampshire
Style: Golden Ale/Blond Ale
Romsey, England

Serve in English pint, Shaker

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Bottle. Hazy gold with a white head. Aromas are spiced oranges with yeast. Quite tart with some dusty notes. Flavours are sweet hops with oranges. Yeasty and dry towards the finish. OK.

Cask Stillage at the Memorial Hall, Northwich 21/09/2002 Golden colour crisp and malty. Slightly dry finish.

Bottle. Quite thin and metallic, tasted like tinned peaches or something. Metallic bitterness, with a sharp acidity that cuts down the middle of the tongue, didn’t like this.

Cask conditioned @ Guide Dog, Soton (03/08/05). Light refreshing hops with heavy muddled malt flavours provides a poor contrast that swamps the pleasant and delicate hops.

Dog & Bone, Gillingham. Buttery ale. Initially very pleasant, but becomes quite a chewy mouthful. Hops work well, but the malt is simply heavy and greasy. This is very much the lager version of Golden Ale. Probably the least successful version of the style.

Hand pulled at the Anchor, Birmingham. I’m not aiming to pick a fight with the RB’s top rater, but there was no way that the version of this beer that I drank was a Pilsener!! The Google search I did only added to the mystery with Hampshire confirming Per’s view, and BeerMe calling it a Strong English Pale Ale - which is what I thought. Any way, that’s all academic I suppose, so on with the rating.... Some orange, honey, lemon flavours, with strong barley sugar too. Gets particularly dry to finish, yet has a hoppy complexity. Very varied, tart but tasty.

UPDATED: JUN 7, 2004 Bottled. Golden coloured with creamy head. Grassy nose, dry and clean, firmly malty. Medium bitterness. A credible pilsener.