Harveys Star of Eastbourne

Bottle (500ml). At Royal Oak, Borough. Clear bright brass-coloured pour with a lasting average creamy-foamy off-white head. Odd aroma - cheap white wine, apple cores, mild sweet caramel malt with faint floral bitterness - this really has a lot of apple character, which is, again, odd. Tasted of sweetish apple, alcohol and strong pungent fresh-floral bitterness; sweet and strongly bitter - somehow this weird combo really worked for me, I happily drank to the bottom of this bottle. Solid body, some astringency from the hops, mildly carbonated, with a fairly long bitter finish (came to be a bit like biting an appleseed), the longer I drank it, the more I appreciated it.

I had this when it was released at the Eastbourne beer festival a few years back and thought it was fantastic...wish i could remember it a bit better! This is the bottled version 6.5% not so good....cooked on the nose and very muddied flavours, sweet boiled vege malt, not much hop presence...tastes like it’s had the shit boiled out of it!

The beer has soft English hops in the nose with apples showing a big presence. I was surprised the body was so aggressively hopped and big hoppy finish. Of course if I went online and read the description before ordering it would have made sense. Nevertheless I really enjoyed this beer.

Cask-conditioned at the Royal Oak, London SE1 16/10/08. Amber with a decent white head. Fruity aroma with some earthy yeast. Flavour had some caramel sweetness, red fruit, a hint of woodiness and some citrus hops. The alcohol was rather prominent. Ok.

Cask conditioned at The Market Porter, Borough, London. Amber with white head. This was 5.5% on cask. Big fruity beer with a heady alcohol note. Drying, dusty hop flavour in a slightly confused body, bitter finish. Pretty reasonable overall.

(Bottle, Royal Oak, Borough, London, 8 Aug 2008) Amber colour with frothy, beige head. Fruity nose with orange, caramel and citrussy hops. Fruity taste with notes of citrus, orange and a decent dash of citrussy hops in the finish. Rather sweet, but tasty and nice. 7/4/7/4/13=3.5 (Rerate: Cask at Royal Oak, Borough, London, 19 Nov 2008) Copper colour with frothy, white head. Malty nose with dried fruit, peaches and hints of yeast. Malty, fruity taste with notes of orange, yeast and earthy, citrussy hops in the finish. Slightly above medium body, fairly sweet. Nice beer, firmly in the Harveys house style.

500ml Bottle (Royal Oak,London) - Amber coloured. Slightly peachy aroma. Moderately bitter and peachy taste which is rather refreshing. Reasonably impressive.

500ml bottle. 6.5% ABV. Re-rate at the Royal Oak, Borough, 24th Feb 2009. Pillowy nose and very lively on the tongue. Clear amber look. Orange and vanilla on the nose, similar flavour with restrained hoppiness and a bitter finish. Very nice.