Mansfield Old Baily

Brewed by Marstons (Marstons plc)
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Burton-on-Trent, England

Serve in English pint

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Cask-conditioned at the Commercial Rooms, Bristol, November 2012. Deep gold with a slight, off-white head. My notes for this, or rather note, merely says "empty". From memory, it was thin, malty and inoffensive.

Maltiness throughout in aroma and taste with a biscuit nose and flavour. Golden with the thinnest of heads.

Cask by handpump at Crystal Palace, Glasgow (24 Oct 12) - clear amber brown, thin white head, no bubbles, nutty malt aroma, caramel, bit of toffee, subtle hop

Cask at Penderels Oak, High Holborn. Festival ale poured into a 1/3 pint glass. Bright naked surface to a clear, ruby-brown coloured body. Smell of dark fruits. Caramel malts alongside hints of dark fruits. Backdrop of bitterness. Likable (JDW real ale festival, London 01.11.2012).

Copper colour with a fine white creamy head that leaves a fine lacing. Caramel malt and light hoppy aroma. Medium body with a creamy texture. Low carbonation. Mild caramel malt flavour and a fine hoppy ending.
[On handpull at The West Kirk JDW in Ayr, Scotland]

An old favourite of mine from a now closed brewery: this beer keeps getting resurrected for Wetherspoon Beer Festivals by Marstons (they being the buyers out of Mansfield brewery some years ago). Hand-pulled pint on 27th Oct 2012 in the Telford Town centre Wetherspoons: Lovely rich brown body with a creamy coloured head. Sweet malty molasses in the nose and taste: caramel with hints of toast and toffee. Although fairly malty and sweetish it does have a hop semi-bitter undertone and is balanced in overal flavouring between the malts and hops. They claim the recipe is the original: I doubt they’ve bought the same high quality ingrediants that were used back in 2000 and before, because this is a shaddow of the beer I remember, even though I enjoyed this new version.

Cask at the John Russell Fox (JDW), Andover. Golden amber with a tight cream head; floury aroma; crisp and sweet with caramel malts and a touch of citrus; the finish is light and biscuity, leaving a Werthers toffee aftertaste.

Cask conditioned at a Wetherspoons. Amber with slight head. I remember when this was a decent pint, I have to say, now it is a sad remnant of what has gone. Thin, dry, bitter and musty. Not great.

Cask at Charlie Hall (JDW) part of Autumn 2012 Beer Festival; My mother always taught me if you can’t say anything nice about something then don’t say it at all!

Poured medium brown with a modest white head. Aroma of caramel and malt. Medium body, flavour of dark fruit and toffe, but quite muted across the board. Average.