Tring Fiddler George

Cask Handpump at the Richard Hopkins, Newton Abbot (JDW) 18/06/2003 Amber coloured and slightly sweet on the palate. Malty with some dryness in the finish.

Cask Conditioned, at the Wenlock Arms, London.
Amber with a slight white lacy head. Bitter with a malty aftertaste. Clean decent bitter.

This beer has a good deal of pine hops on the nose along with, oddly, some alcohol vapours. This is a bitter beer that suffers from a thin mouthfeel. Average.

Pale amber with a fruity hop aroma. Smooth and easy to drink. As the earlier reviewer remarked, hoppy on the palate without much bitterness, so finishes rather soft and lacks a little "grip". No sweetness in my sample though. Distinctive "Cascade" hop notes, but I later learned that this beer uses Bramling Cross, a British variety (although, in fact, originally derived from a cross between a Golding variant and a wild Canadian seedling) with a pronounced "American" character. Well made and very pleasant, but nothing spectacular. Not quite sure what Tring are aiming at here as they alredy have a 4.2% bitter and a couple of "summer" ales in the portfolio. Handpump, The Crosse Keys, City of London, July 2003.

Sampled cask conditioned at both Akkurat & Oliver Twist, Stockholm, Sweden.
Interesting experiment, drinking the same cask ale within half an hour on two different pubs. It was amber coloured, and at Akkurat it had a pronounced flowery hop aroma, which was less obvious at Oliver Twist where it was sweet, but the soft, whipped cream mouthfeel at Akkurat was not there at Oliver Twist, where it was more watery and fruity. Also the hop aromatic finish was more powerful at Akkurat, but at both places the bitterness was rather low. I believe this was the last beer from a big shipment that both pubs racked, and somehow Akkurat got the better hand this time, however I know both places do their utmost to assure good quality of their cask ales. Rating stated is the one that was served at Akkurat.