O’Hanlon’s Royal Oak

Brewed by O’Hanlon’s
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Exeter, England

Serve in English pint

White Cliffs Winter Ales Fest. Gravity. A fresh and lively bitter with a huge dollop of sweet pale malt nicely mingling with a gentle (but increasing) tangyness. The result is a lively and happy premium bitter. A little sweet, but pleasant enough.

Royal Oak Traditional Bitter, 500ml bottle brought home from St Albans Beer Festival, Sept.05. Bottle conditioned (bb. 28.04.06). Deep amber with slowly fading beige head that left nice lacing on the glass. Rich malty and floral aromas. Fruity and malty body with a touch of caramel and yeast. Medium bitter ending.

(Bottled) Clear, dark amber with a small, but lacy head. Toffee-malty, lightly vinous aroma. Lightly grainy, toffee-ashy-malty flavor with mild bitterness and some dry oaky notes. Medium-bodied, medium-carbonated palate. A decent, but not very interesting brew.

Bottle. Pours with quite the massive head of foam, taking considerable time to retreat into the shiny bronze beer. For an British ale, this has a remarkably American aroma, with a citric hoppy aroma, if a little soapy. But this drinks with a distinctly European tilt, sweet like tea, and thinner than what most American beer geeks would consider acceptable. Drinkable and flavorful for sure, but defiantly "old school". Hey, I like it. (#3745, 11/19/2009)

Sweet caramel malts with earthy, floral, herbal hops front and centre. Hazy copper-tan coloured body is topped by a generous and lasting off white head that sticks to the sides of the glass. Caramel malts are strong in the flavour with fairly assertive balancing bitterness. Floral, leafy, herbal hops are very present in the mouth. Medium body with moderate to lively carbonation. Half pint glass. Cellar temperature. Bottle (BB 240707, Bièropholie, Jun-05).

500. Crystal clear dark amber with a fluffy platinum blonde head that leaves tons of ridged sedimentary layers of eggy lace down the sides of the glass. Looks very promising. Shortbready nose. Maybe a little bit of spicy brown bread happening there. So funny to think so many ESBs share a label designation with APAs when they’re such worlds apart. This smells and drinks closer to OSA than it does to any APA I can think of. Watery medium body with soft carb. Light spices, almost pie spices, with maybe a bit of banana and some shortbread. Half a liter of this will start to feel like drinking a loaf of bread, I just know it. Drinkable and well-made, but completely preoccupied with the malt bill, and gets to be a little on the heavy side for the amount of complexity it can offer.

Bottle. Pours a hazy orange-amber with a large mostly-lasting fluffy off-white head. Very mild aroma and flavour of light caramel malt, fruit, faint hops with a touch of funkyness. A bit of sourness in the flavour as well and an average bitter finish. Average bodied. I was expecting more from this beer, I thought it was just O.K.

Hazy orange amber, modest orange-tinted cap. Floral fruity hop nose, some yeasty caramel to back things up. Caramel, a little nutty, fruity yeast, very bitter finish. Only criticism is the body is quite thin, but this lends to drinkability I suppose. A solid bitter.