Samuel Smiths Old Brewery Bitter (Cask)

Cask at Ye Olde Chesire Cheese in London. Clouded brown body with a small cream colored head. Nose is some fruit, wood and hops. Taste is light wood, spiced hops, cocoa, and muddied malt. Mouthfeel is moderate with mild bitterness. Finish is a fruit flavor (for some reason I picked up banana) with a hoppy note or two.

Draught in Cittie Of Yorke, London. March 2004. After long trip to London this pub really was my Holy Grail and this bitter - first beer on the table. It wasn’t quite complex, but I liked it for its refreshing sourness and creaminess.

cask conditioned at tadcaster pub next to the brewery: pulled this rate out of my journal of my travels to england. im definately going to have to try this again because i wasnt as down on the stuff as all the other rates. however, i am a yank and dont taste cask beers that often so , maybe a little more interesting and exciting to me then to someone in their home town. golden brown poor with a white thick head. slight hop fruit aroma. easy easy drinking. good session...

Very flat and uninspiring, BLAH! I was suprised the head lasted 5 minutes. Had a very strange color to it also

Cask Conditioned City of York in the big smoke. Puke, I thought I’d never stop. And they call this stuff beer? Get home and milk the cows.

Yep, I've done this in a couple of pubs. But it aint much. A bit flabby, though there's a wood smack that bodes well. Just doesn't quite do the job.

Coming from London, I have a bit of a down on Sam Smiths because a) they virtually stopped selling real beer in London and switched over to disgusting nitrokeg and b) took over a lot of classic pubs in London (e.g. the Princess Louise) that used to sell a good range of beer and restricted us to their own incredibly narrow product range (only one cask ale still produced). And this from a brewery that is supposedly staunchly traditional. On this instance, I was drinking it on its home turf in Yorkshire. Mid brown in colour. Served through a sprinkler with big head. Drinkable, but not really to my taste - too malty and not bitter enough for a bitter. Still, better than the nitrokeg. And the cheapest pint I have seen outside Wetherspoons in many a year - £1.22. Handpump, The Menston Arms, Menston, Yorkshire, September 2003

Cask Conditioned, at The Cittie of Yorke, Holburn, London.
This pub is worth a visit whether you’re a Sam Smiths fan or not. It’s on of the nicer heritage listed pubs in London. Central and easy to get to. Silk got the hump about the sparkler on this one but shit happens. The beer wasn’t all that anyway. Dark amber with a creamy head. The beer was neutral on hops and malts, with little or no aroma. I think you're ment to drink 15 of them to register aroma/flavour.