Keystone Gold Spice

Brewed by Keystone
Style: Golden Ale/Blond Ale
Salisbury, England

Serve in English pint, Shaker

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Gorgeous aroma of fresh ginger, zingy hops and wind swept grainy malt, the palate offers up more invitation to come and explore a ginger cake fuelled playground with a caressing mouthfeel aiding a slightly hedonistic experience. It finishes dry and moreish. Good body. I have sampled this beer at various stages and for varying exposure to the ginger and with ginger added at slightly different times. It does make a difference, obviously, and the most glorious examples I have tried have been recently, at the Tucker’s Maltings Festival ’08 and at a local pub. The Gold Standard itself is a lovely beer and with a good length of time on ginger it really turns into a different beer, not just a mute take on the Standard. A few weeks maturation also really enhances mouthfeel that keeps it from being to heavy and podgy on the palate.

UPDATED: SEP 24, 2007 A Mes rate: Gravicask @ Reading Beer Festival. Excellent stuff. Seem to remember having this towards the end of the first day and not thinking too much to it. Early on day two it was much better. Lovely golden colour with floaty fizzy bubbles. Amazing fresh hop and Jamaican ginger cake nose. More of the same in the flavour. Reminds me of Sly Fox but easily superior. The ginger cake note is awesome and I don’t like ginger beers. Mouthfeel is excellent. Great stuff.

28th September 2007. St Albans Beer Fest. Oh dear. This rate comes at the end of a long days drinking. All I wrote was ’A very light ginger ale, very drinkable’

Cask Handpump at the Smithfield Hotel, Manchester 17/01/2007 Ginger aroma. Thick white head. Clear golden coloured and smooth on the palate. Hoppy with some ginger flavour. A little dryness and bitterness in a malt finish.

[Gravity cask at Chippenham Beer Festival] Light gold. Ginger is evident but is well balanced against the smooth, creamy, malty beer. Surprised me by being one of the better ginger beers I’ve had.

UPDATED: JAN 8, 2008 Cask (Gallows Bird, Espoo, OKT Pikkujoulu) Golden, thin persistent head. Despite looking light, it’s got a rich and dark malty aroma - coffee in places, and also ginger cake. Taste is a lovely wave of ginger with a full-bodied malt - fairly grainy. I was right in my previous review! Rerate of (5-3-7-3-12=3.0) Cask (Peterborough BF 2007) Plain malty bitter plus ginger. Ginger’s great, but doesn’t fit in with the rest of the beer, which is quite plain. Defintely has potential. Black Door - Helsinki, Jan 08 - (6+3+6+3+12=2.8) A bit odd.

Cask (South Western Arms, Southampton) - Golden in colour. Spicy aroma with ginger, hops and spicy malt. The taste is hoppy with some citrus elements and a bit of a spicy kick from the ginger. Refreshing and enjoyable.

Bottle from CAMRA Beer Club. Whilst I’m not a great fan of beers flavoured with ginger, this one does what it says on the bottle. Poured a light golden colour, with a creamy head that lasted well down the glass. Quite hoppy with a strong citrus flavour well complemeted by a clear, but not overwhelming, taste of ginger. A nice version of this type of beer.

Cask-conditioned at the Royal Oak, Bath 18/07/09. Pale gold with a slight white head. Aroma had hints of citrus and ginger. Flavour was sweet and malty with some ginger in the finish. A bit dull.

Cask conditioned at The Garricks Head, Bath. Gold with white head. Thin, quite dully spiced beer with a bland malty flavour. Somewhat bready in the finish, fairly disappointing.