J.W. Lees Brewers Dark (formerly GB Mild) (Cask)

Brewed by J.W. Lees
Style: Mild Ale
Middleton Junction, England

Cask @ The Rain Bar, Manchester M1. Pours a dark amber color with a small off-white head. Has a roasted malty caramel aroma. Slightly roasted malty caramel flavor with some hints of chocolate. Has a roasted malty caramel finish.

Cask (gravity) @ National Winter Ales Festival 2009, Manchester, England.
Clear medium to dark brown color with a small to average, fizzy, fair lacing, mostly diminishing, off-white to white head. Aroma is moderate malty, toasted, roasted, chocolate, butterscotch notes. Flavor is moderate sweet and light bitter with a average duration. Body is medium to light, texture is oily to watery, carbonation is flat to soft. [20090124]

Handpulled cask at JDW Hatch End, Harrow, during spring international beer festival. Newly tapped cask produced a lovely fresh pint with dense off white head. Grainy aroma, wonderful comlpex taste for a low gravity beer. Chocalate, good coffee and roasted grains with a refreshing balancing hop finish. One of the best examples of a dark mild I have tasted anywhere.

[cask at Back of Beyond, Reading] I’d only had a mild once before I tried this and had loved it (wish I could remember what it was!), so I couldn’t wait to try this one at my local Wetherspoons beerfest. It poured as black, flat and headless as a black cat on the M25 at midnight. Unfortunately it had about as much taste as that previous sentence; a mild hint of dark chocolate, then just tepid water. A grave disappointment this one.

(Cask at White Horse, Parson’s Green, London, 25 April 2008) Dark brown colour, almost black, with brief beige head. Malty, roasted nose with notes of chocolate and coffee. Malty, roasted taste with chocolate, dark fruit and some cocoa bitterness in the finish. Smooth mouthfeel. Decent and well made mild.

Cask, The Highcross, Leicester. Black with a cream head. Aromas are earthy and lightly roasted with yeast and hints of metal. Flavours are chocolate and coffee malts with some fruitiness. Light yet has character.

Cask at Bankers Draft (JDW), Bedford. In the ’Spoons Real Ale Festival, but after its official close. Red brown with a small white head. Faint malt aroma with date and liquorice: very promising. The taste was disappointingly watery with a slight grainy backtaste and not much else.

Cask at weatherspoons sauchiehall st- pours darkish brown mostly clear/red small head smells like burnt toast some earth and malted sweentess. then on the palate like water with a taste of burnt popcorn and toast. some biscuit. little hop flavour in finish. barnyard.