Samuel Smiths Old Brewery Pale Ale

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

clear amber color ... pours nicely with a firm, small head ... a fresh smell of tropical rainforest paired with earthy charcoal .... the roasted notes are dominant in the taste as well, paired with exotic fruits (bananas, starfruit) .... quite dry and a nice bitter note ... another classic from Samuel Smith ....

55 cl bottle. No yeast at the bottom. Amber clear colour with a fine head with laces. Light aroma of caramel with a little hoppy nose. Soft flavour of fruitness with hints of nuts and caramel-like.

Bottle 48F Pint. Nice malt and dry hops notes. A nice dark amber hue, with a fluffy tan head. Good taste, rich with nice slightly bitter hops and very smooth malts. A nice tasting product once again from Samuel Smith. Nice and quaffable but easily savorable. Well done. Very small bubbles of carbonation provide invigorating pricks on the tongue. I definately like this one very nice taste too it.

Bottle.

Pours a nutty orange amber color with a decent head. The aroma is grassy, some warm malt. The flavor couples rather grassy, earthy, metallic hops with a caramel malts that, though gently sweet - perhaps a bit too sweet to be maximally thirst-quenching- never really break through to dominate the flavor profile. Very faint whispers of fruitiness and also of diacetyl as well. Mouthfeel is relatively thin.

I tend to like this brewery but this is a forgettable offering.

Clear bottle? Bleh. 550mL bottle, no date. Pours a clear orange copper with a one finger fading light beige head. Aromas of caramel malts, raisins and figs. I almost think I can get some earthy hops, but I can’t tell. The taste leans much more to the sweet and malty, as I taste predominantly caramel and raisins. There is also some butterscotch. I do get some woody earthy hops, but very little. There is some small bitterness about halfway through, but quickly subsides. Biscuity malty finish. Medium bodied, high carbonation. Pretty decent, though nothing magnificent. Change the freakin’ bottles!

Poured deep orange with a off white head. The aroma has that classic Sam Smith skunkiness I find in all their beers. Grain notes and some carmel pepper the aroma. Upon further aroma gathering I noticed that toasted bread and malt become noticable. Flavor is sweet and bread like. Some carmel and toasted notes make their way into the flavor as well.

It’s nice to be re-aquainted with an old friend after a long time seperated,so I was pleased to find this (and others) in a "fine wine" shop that I’d always thought too upmarket to sell beer, mind you, the beers were away at the back and at floor level, so they couldn’t be seen from the street...anyway, I digress!A fine looking beer clean amber in colour with a long lasting white head that’s leaving a nice lace as it goes down the glass. A powerful balanced nose with both the malt and the hops putting in fine performances, the same can be said for the palate, fairly complex but not overpowering, both components balancing the other, a pleasant bitterness and a slightly sweet maltiness, there is a good long finish too! A nice treat, must visit that place again!

The beer seemed a bit excited from the trip from the corner store to my glass. It foamed up a bit upon popping the cap, but I managed to rescue most of it into my glass. As I am pouring this brew, I get definite, disappointing notes of light struck beer. The beer is topped by a frothy, initially three-finger thick, large bubble, lace inducing, tan colored head. The beer itself is a brilliantly clear, ruby hued, dark amber color. The light struck skunkiness seems to fade with time, and notes of toffee, a wisp of diacetyl, toasted grain and some caramel do a fair job of masking that particularly offensive aroma. There seems to be a touch of earthy, lightly herbal hops, though one could certainly wish for a bit more.

My taste buds are greeted by a nice sharp bitterness from the get go, it combines with the carbonation to give this brew a decent bite through to and even magnifying in the finish. Soft fruity notes of apples, a touch of grape-like raisin and some notes of lightly sweet caramel balance out the hop bitterness. There is a nice level of underlying toasted malt character here; it gives the beer a sort of toasted biscuit type note. Also there is just a wisp of diacetyl again, it adds a really subtle buttery quality to this brew, but I am a touch sensitive to this particular flavor. It is not offensive though and helps to add some more complexity to this brew. While light and quaffable, this brew has a certain malty heft to it that is quite nice, again it is another thing that helps to balance the noticeable bitterness.

This is not a bad brew, but it is certainly not great either. Shipping this in brown bottles would certainly help this brew immensely. Still I am perfectly happy sipping an Imperial pint of this brew. While some flavors may be too much, or others lacking, this beer really struck a nice balance between the hoppy bitterness and the multifaceted malt character; it is something the English seem to do well, even in a beer like this.