Samuel Smiths Old Brewery Pale Ale

Poured from 550ml bottle into dimpled mug. Aroma - Amber malt with some dried fruit and caramel faint grassy hops. Appearance - Copper-red in color. Large, creamy, off-white head with excellent retension. Flavor - Predominant malt taste with dried light fruit. Just the right amount of hop bitterness. Palate - A bit slick at first but cleans up well on the finish. Overall - This, like all the other Samuel Smith products, is spot on. Nothing big or adventurous, but true to the original style and reasonably priced.

Pours a really nice looking copper color with a decent tan head. Aroma is malt and nail polish remover. Maybe some biter hops. Flavor is more nail polish remover. This one sits on the back of your tongue for awhile and dries your whole mouth out. Ok, but not great.

Clear copper with a nice, tanned head. Bitter hoppy aroma with caramel and a slightly bitter flavor with notes of iodine, caramel and nuts.

550ml bottle, served at cellar temperature. This beer is amber with a relatively thick one inch head and low carbonation, though not low for the style. I smell biscuit, caramel and brown bread. The flavour has plenty of molasses and a strong, wonderful amount of black licorice. Wow. I could come back to this for the licorice alone. There is some subtle pine in the slightly distant hops, and I taste what can only be described as square soft caramel chews. There’s some orange zest, grass and raisin in there too. Cold temperatures would spoil this.

Pours copper into the glass with a small white head. Aroma is very weak. Some sweet malt coming through, but virtually nothing else. Flavor is some soft caramel malts with a slight hop balance. This would make a nice session beer, but is a bit on the pricey side.

Sooooo I’m back to Samuel Smith, after previous poor experiences I’ve decided to have another go. Got the gift pack w/ glass recently assuming the beers are ideally fresh and covered from light exposure. This English Pale Ale is a nice offering. Fruity malts with earthy overtones, the aroma has a light buttery quality. Medium copper in color, very clear with a small filmy head and minor lacing. Fresh and lively to the palate, balanced sweet malt and mildly bitter. Good session beer that drinks nice. Flavors of toffee, raisin, orange zest and buttered bread. Grassy aftertaste that delves into a lingering bitterness. I’m content sipping on this one, much more than in the past.

Bottle, The Champion, London, W1W. Amber pour with a thin, fading head. Aroma was caramel malts, dusty hop. Flavour had more malts, biscuit, toast, and a vague metallic/mineral tang in there towards the end which was bitterish. A tad yawnsome. Not really feelin’ it.

This is a pretty archetypal english bitter - moderately sweet and semi-earthy aroma, with notes of prune and bread pudding, and a tiny bit of hops underneath - lightly bitter up front, followed by some banana bread flavors, honey sweetness, and just enough diacetyl to produce a present, but not intrusive buttery quality - a little nutty toward the end - a fairly solid bitter.