3 AROMA 4/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 4/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 14/20
500ml bottle - Christmas gift from Piers. Pale golden amber colour - very clean. Barely any carbonation. Honey nose and taste. Assorted aromas: saddle leather; must; mushrooms; slightly stale twat juice. Initial full mouth melts away like ice - hard to keep hold of it. Leaves a fridge ice taste. Some vague fruit. This is malt dominated, and quite pale, delicate malt. There’s little in the way of hops to intrude on the malt play, and that is pleasant. Lacks impact - this is a delicate beer (for all its strength) - though makes up for that in pleasant and interesting flavours. Doesn’t quite grip me as much as I would like, but a decent brew. Interesting.
3.9 AROMA 8/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 9/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 15/20
Bottle at Mason and Taylor. Amber orange coloured, very little head. Aroma is caramelly, quite sweet and boozy. Taste has a slight bitterness but the caramel sweetness comes through. Tingly in the mouth. Very very nice.
3.8 AROMA 7/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 8/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 16/20
Bottle from Bernie’s Real Ale Off License, Shirley. Slops misted brass with a slick white head barely covering the beer. Alluring, mashed-up aroma: peated malt, honey, shortbread, hessian, pigs, unspeakableness, undissolved pineapple jelly cubes pipetted with acetone. Unexpected, dense malts; burnt herbal sausage and mellow rauch notes dovetailed with strawberry, pineapple and heady spiced apple - which sounds like a flavour combination from hell but at 8% with no alcohol showing makes perfect sense. Long, smoky tail with dry roasted notes. Complex, full and seriously drinkable- pretty relieved I haven’t got another one chilling.
3.3 AROMA 7/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 2/5 OVERALL 14/20
500ml bottle. Pours dark orange with no head. Aroma is burnt orange and paint thinners. Taste has burnt orange to start. Orange hop finish with some booze. Flat and lifeless.
3.4 AROMA 7/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 14/20
Cask@The Rake, London. Orangeish golden colour with a small slightly off-white head that lasts for quite a while. Aroma is citrus fruits, floral hops as well as quite spicy notes. Flavour is quite much the same. Rather bigtime spicyness. Wouldn’t believe the 8 % ABV if I had it in a blind tasting.
3.4 AROMA 7/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 14/20
(bottle) pours a hazy deep golden colour with a frothy off-white head. subtle aroma of honeymelon and mango, grapefruit, canned peaches, straw and pale balsamic vinegar. flavour is mostly the same, with a delicate fruitiness lingering over a semi-sweet caramel backdrop and a faint hint of alcohol and grain. slightly viscuous body with average carbonation.
3.5 AROMA 7/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 8/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 14/20
A hazed amber ale with a thin white head. In aroma, A strange sweet malt with light fusel and wood extract, incense, strange. In mouth, a nice sweet and peaty sweet malt, smokey, veering on a rauch. Bottle at Mondial 2011, June 9, 2011.
3.5 AROMA 7/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 15/20
Golden-copper with almost no head. Funky nose of leather, fruity, some leafy hops and caramel. Full bodied, very low carbonation, on the sweet side with a nice funky brett character. Don’t know if there was a mean for brett or not in there, but I defenitely like it. Long malty sweet finish. Nice a-typical brew.
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