Wells Bombardier (Pasteurised)

Brewed by Wells & Youngs
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Bedford, England

Strong, pronounced character with fresh-baked cookies texture and chocolatey-coffee flavour. Thick and rich pour with frothy head. I enjoyed this beer so much the first time I drank it, I lost track of how fast I was drinking it. This is the kind of beer that goes very well with a plate of fine cheeses, crackers and meats. Made to be savoured!

Bottle: Redish amber with a large off-white head and lots of bead in the glass. Plenty of prune-like esters over some slightly metallic and cardboardy crystal malts. Fairly well done, really. In the mounth things go down hill sadly; nice toffee sweetness with some woody herb hop notes, but the classic British bottled dead palate rears its dispicably ugly head and completely takes over around mid-palate. From there on it’s dead malts and astringent bitterness.

From a 568 ml. shaped narrow neck brown bottle with a blurb on the back label, a freshness date stamped on the shoulder of bottle. Poured a clear reddish deep amber with a foamy white head that settled into a thinnish bubbly lacing. Aromas of roasted malts and minerals, fruity with a light spiciness with a little peat. A nice even medium carbonation and a malty crisp, dry and smooth light-medium drinkability. Nice ESB taste, roasted sweet malts with a touch of a peat scotch whiskey, spicy and berry fruity, a bit nutty, and a dry malty and fruity finish with a little caramelized sugar and spice lingering in the palate. A good tasting ESB from Charles Wells, easy, smooth drinkability, highly quaffable.

568 mL bottle. (Doesn’t seem to take up that much space in my glass!?) Deep reddish brown. Small beige head. Weak aroma of sour apples that have perhaps gone off. Taste is a little thinner, lighter than I remember. A bit of something . . . butterscotchy . . . sweetness. A bit of bitterness on the tongue. Not bad, but there are better bitters.

568 mL bottle (real pint): Solid bitter of mine for years but not my favourite. The label brings comfort, saying the Goldings hops (can be very overwhelming, see their Summer Hop Ale, Black Sheep Ale) are mixed with Challenger hops, which softens the bite. Dark brown with thin, disappearing head. Nice lacing. This beer has some dark fruit flavour but could have more. Pleasant mouthfeel & not too bitter a finish. Better than Black Sheep Ale but not as good as Wychwood’s Hobgoblin or Fuller’s London Pride. Gets a relatively higher rating only because I love bitters so much. OK example of style, but probably way better on tap. Won’t turn it down & much better than the run-of-the-mill pale lager macro-brew-crap out there that most North Americans are drinking all year regardless of season.

Aroma: Low aroma, sweet, toffee, crystal malt, diacetyl, Appearance: Reddish brown, no head Flavour: Malt is predominant, no hop character, low bitterness, toffee and diacetyl Palate: light body, creamy mouthfeel Overall: Unbalanced, too sweet for my taste, lacks balance and diacetyl is too strong. needs more bitterness and hop character to counter aggrssive sweetness.

A great aroma which promised a lot. But the actual taste was quite a bit watery and disappointing.

Bottle. Amber colour and not much head. Slightly malty with a hoppy finish. Decent flavour.