Shepherd Neame Spooks Ale (Bottle)

Brewed by Shepherd Neame
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Faversham, England

Serve in English pint

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Bottle. Dark amber colour with an off-white head. Malty, caramel, toffe, fruit, grain aroma. Malty, fruity, dry, slightly tannic flavor. Dry, bitter finish.

Great brew, lovely head and wonderful aroma. It has a clear reddish colour and feels soft in the mouth

Small but reasonably persistent cream-coloured head, leaving even some lace, over deep foxy-amber beer. All kinds of cookies aroma’s, with caramel and even toffee, giving mental images of Petit Beurre, Café Noir, biscuit and even oatmeal cookies. And a tad spicy. Taste is way drier than the nose suggests, hoppy, with even a serious hint at bitterness, tangy, which goes on for a long time. Mocha retronasal, becoming sweeter again after some warming up. Light to medium bodied, quite slick, and quite dry finish. I’m a bit... spooked indeed as how nose and flavour give each other the lie... Far from bad - would love to sample this from the cask.

Bottled 04/06/12. A dark brown coloured beer with a whitish head. A full malty aroma with coffee and husky grains. Really welcoming. It’s very tasty too and beautifully balanced in the mouth. Nice late bitterness. Crunchy malts. A bit of berry, a bit of chocolate orange and a bit of toast. This is as good a SN beer as I’ve ever had.

Aroma of chocolate biscuits with a spicy hop edge. Amber with a reasonable head Biscuity flavour witha slight hop bite.

500ml Brown bottle, best before Aug 2012, poured into an Abbot Ale glass tankard in Oct 2011. Looks really good, lovely red hue to its chestnut brown body a full, deep slighlty off-white head sat on top. Hops in the aroma, was expecting a maltier smell because of the colour: the rear label does mention ’a particularly fruity hop’ being added at four different stages of the brewing process. That’ll be the reason I could smell a citrusy hop presence then! The taste however is maltier than the hops, with a roasted biscuity, toasted brown bread feel to it. There is a sharper, bitter finish after the initial malt taste, those hop obviously finding their feet towards the end of the gulps I was taking. I was hoping for a more creamy, richer body to be honest, but it wasn’t a bad beer in any way, just not as smooth as I’d hoped for.

500ml bottle. Pours a medium amber, white head. Fruity, quite hoppy ale, light roast, mat, caramel, apricot, floral notes. Dry, medium bdy and bitterness, balanced CO2. Fruity, malty taste, caramel, apricots, fudge, hops, lightly toasted, dried fruit, walnuts, slightly ashy. (2012-03-25)

Medium brown with a soapy lasting white head. Smells of chocolate roast, caramel and some cinnamon. Medium frothy body. Sweet caramel roast with some light fruit. Light hint of citrus. Biscuit. Straight up delicious. Has such a sweet delicious caramel malt that it keeps me coming back.

Bottle 500ml.

Clear medium to dark amber colour with a large, frothy, good lacing, mostly lasting, off-white to beige head. Aroma is moderate to light light heavy malty, caramel, caramelized caramel - malt, light toffee. Flavour is moderate to light light heavy sweet and moderate bitter with a average to long duration, light toffee. Body is medium, texture is oily, carbonation is soft. [20111211]

From Fosse. Pours a coppery red with a slim, finely lacing, just off-white lid. Aroma of rust, clove-studded oranges, underlying chocolate. Something of an unexpected US influence on the palate; bright floral hops, citrus and berries underscored with crunchy, coffee-dunked digestive malts. Bitter linger, soft condition. Berries, coffee and chocolate orange notes re-emerging attractively in the burp. Actually pretty good: barely touched the sides.