Samuel Smiths Old Brewery Pale Ale

Brewed by Samuel Smith
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Tadcaster, England

Poured from bottle into Nonic Imperial Pint. Clear medium amber with moderate off-white head that leaves a decent amount of lacing, especially for an English beer. Aroma of dark sweet fruit, caramel, English hops and a slight earthiness. Fairly malty pale ale with an emphasis on slightly sweet fruit, caramel and an almost buttery quality. The malts are somewhat balanced by a nice Fuggles/Goldings hop taste. Ends with a somewhat metallic bitterness. Relatively low carbonation, very smooth medium body, semi-dry finish. Above average EPA that would be a great session beer. I was expecting more though.

smooth and easy to drink. Not very carbonated. Beautiful color and creamy head. Thin on the palate for an ale.

Perhaps an older bottle? Not sure, but it had the clear glass which is always a disappointment and the beer suffers for it. The strength of the beer is clearly the appearance, which is a beautiful dark amber/rootbeer brown in color with a thick and creamy tan head. The bready aroma didn’t let much else out of my glass, except for a few random notes of sweet malts. The flavor had a rather muted taste with some light malts, some bread, a bit of caramel but mostly just a vague drinking experience. Is clear glass the culprit? Dunno. The palate seemed very thin too by the way. Kinda like an extract homebrew.

Not a very big aroma, with some light bitterness and earthyness. Taste is simple bitter, slightly citrus but not that big flavour.

A nice amber color, pours a large creamy head despite its rather flat carbonation on the palate. Wonderful bready malt aroma, at first, along with grapefruit hops, but not overpowering. Flavor is nothing that packs a punch, but has some subtle complexity to it. Aroma dissipates quickly. Palate is light, watery and a bit flat, I think I already mentioned that. Not a big fan of ESB’s, but was happy with the experience.

slightly cloudy copper brown, pretty dark for a pale ale. medium head and lacing, heavily carbonated. moderate sharp and almost sweet hoppiness from start to finish. with a fairly clean finish. small but notable flavor of dark roast. notes of coffee and grain. Overall a great beer thats very drinkable, also fairly distinctive and diff from most pale ales

Delicious with hints of caramel, and fruit that compliment the hoppy bitterness in a pleasing way. Very well balanced though I don’t detect the earthiness I was expecting.

500. Capped and foiled. Schmancy! Pours crystal clear very dark amber. Thickish creamy tan head. Some decent stalactites of lace poking up here and there. Bread and butter nose. Not so promising, but a little dough and butter might be the idea, ya never know. Creamy lightish body, very subdued carb. Caramel, butter, and bread on the mid-palate. A little cloying, not super refreshing.