Pours a deep copper colour with a thin slightly off white head. Nose is nice and bitter. Not much actual hop scent, but smells very bitter. Flavour is almost more of an IPA than a brown ale. Some nice citrus notes which weren’t really present in the nose, and a bit of a bit of a malty backing, but not really enough for what I’d consider to be a brown ale. Carbonation is ok, and the mouthfeel isn’t offensively watery, but it isn’t exceptional.

Bottle - 341ml. Pours a limpid copper body with good carbonation and a thin beige frothy head. Nice hoppy aroma with malty, oaky, and fruity hints. Its sharp, robust hoppy taste ends with a long bitter finish. Awesome!

Cask at Volo Cask Days, October 2008. Pours golden. Floral aroma has a hint of caramel, butter, some grass. This is nicely balanced: bitter hops with apricot give way to caramel malt, a small nuttiness with some citrus, then underlying oak.

Pint from a Cask at the Castle. Man, is this a solid brew! Taps a murky amberish brown, with a large, frothy, beige head. Aroma: Strong aromatic hops, quite nice, with a very solid malty backbone. Taste: Unbelievably well balanced. You can tell there’s 84 IBU’s, but honestly, you don’t feel it as much as you’d think. My palate was taken away with the delicious malts, the bitterness mostly only evident in the finish and aftertaste, in the form of a mild tingling on the tongue that lingers. Man, this one is something special! Almost like a murky brown IPA, because usually Brown Ales aren’t really my thing. This beer definitely blurs the style guidelines of at least a couple different styles.