Samuel Smiths Old Brewery Pale Ale

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

Bottle. Looks nice as it pours into my glass. Brown with a nice head. At first sniff, I’d have sworn there were cobwebs in there. It has that dusty, dry aroma ... probably from the lightly roasted malts. Dry and somewhat bitter in the mouth. Not too bitter though. It’s not as malty as other ESBs out there, and there’s a stronger hop presence ... but it’s pretty mild.

16 oz bottle. Pours a chestnut brown with a fluffy 2 finger beige head. Aroma is fruity with lots of caramel, some toasted malts and a light floral hoppiness. Flavor is similar to the aroma, caramel and toffee. Ttoasty and fruity up front with a lightly bitter finish. Nicely balanced. Light bodied and thin on the mouthfeel, but to style. Very fine bubbled carbonation. Not bad, thin on flavor but I suppose that’s the aim of an ESB.

Now here’s an English tradition, one that I can see firmly entrenched in the guttersnipe pubs around London, but one that belongs nowhere else. A certain quality of the English beer inextricably bonds it, by a common history, to the pub or pubs it’s served at. The crafters and brewers who developed and fostered the Bitter obviously had their favorite pubs in mind: The Cheshire Cheese, The White Horse, The Lion’s Pride and so forth. And these establishments, dotted around the English countryside and packed in English cities, all make an enormous efforts to be as dim, dark, pensive and warm as possible. The sterile pub is the bad one. The pub replete with memories, bar fights, adventurers, travelers and all the riff raff that comes in between is well the laid and established place, fit for serving the simple Bitter. And I think the Samuel Smith Bitter is an exemplary model of what kind of beer can come out of such a pub tap. It’s lucidly clear, mellow rust colored, has a fairly basic off white head and contributes nothing to the murky atmosphere of the establishment. This allows it to bend the light in what should be an already convoluted and confusedly lit room. The smell is almost entirely of caramel, and reminds me of a good candy shop in a small town, where the perfectly healthy and nutritious fruits are dangled and then dipped into a coating of sugary brown goo. The taste, too, is overwhelmingly filled with caramel and toffee, with a slight stirring of roasted malts to help offset the sugary clout. And here is where I come to the bitter’s place in the pub. It is a directly simple beer; its palate is flat and easy, it’s taste is singular and simple, and the color is an earthen bronze and transparent. The flavors push back a bit, serving to make for a break between each sip, and the drink goes by very slowly. And that’s where the pub beer should be. In your English tavern, whether it’s in the dim alleyways of London or the locus of a town somewhere in the countryside, conversation is the motive. Drunkenness is fine, but by itself is equivalent to misery. But in the company of friends, farmers, bosses and subordinates, booze makes a fine fellow! So here the bitter was never meant to be “top notch” or overtly complex. It had no intention to be an outré artistic brew, or to flow with a regional flavor. It’s there to accompany the drinker in one hand, while his other is over the back of yet another drinker. And for this purpose, I think the Sam Smith Old Brewery Pale Ale serves the pub visitor awfully well. To myself, where I sit and contemplate what I’m drinking, it is a foul beast. But I’m not in the company of many, and I’m not in the old wooden halls of a cherished pub. That’s where the Bitter belongs.

Brownish orange with a thin cream head. Strong aroma of malts and hops with a thin bitter malty taste.

Very pleasant and easy drinking bitter. Amber pour, very littlr head that does not linger long. Sweet mal flavors...nuts and toffee, fruit and grain...with a decent floral hop bite in the finish to balance everything out.

Pours a darker amber color with a thin off white head. Aromal is of caramel, malts, a hint of hops, and a sour fruit flavor I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Flavor was the same with a slightly bitter finish. Another good Samuel Smith’s brew.

Clear amber color with a thin white head. Mild hoppy aroma. Sweet honey and malt flavor with a hoppy aftertaste.

Bottle: Light copper colour, great nutty coffee aroma, taste is a bit watery and one dimensional. Just OK not great.