Wells Bombardier (Pasteurised)

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

Head is initially average sized, frothy, off-white, mostly lasting. Body is dark reddish-amber. Aroma is moderately malty (cookie, toasted bread, caramel), lightly hoppy (flowers, apricot, orange), with notes of plum, Bit-O-Honey, and diacetyl. Flavor is moderately sweet, lightly acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is lightly sweet, lightly acidic, moderately bitter. Medium body, velvety texture, lively carbonation. Very nice quaffing ale here...clean and extremely well-balanced. Nothing mind-blowing, but surprisingly solid (based on the average score here) and a fair bit more flavorful than quite a lot of similarly priced English imports. Very nice/interesting color, too, like mahogany...and with a lasting head, that’s good for a perfect score in my book. Thumbs up.

Bottle. Brilliant, clear copper/amber body with a thick, tan head. Nuts, whole grains, toffee and chewy malts. Quite malty with some dark, ripe fruits hinted at toward the back. Tremendous malt character provides for a smooth body and creamy finish. Tasty, chewy and gloriously malty. A very tasty bitter.

mahogany pour with ruddy highlights (substansially darker than the beer pictured) a frothy head the parchment -tan color of an onion's papery outer skin. gorgeous buttery hazzlenut cookie aroma, with a spread of mango chutney in the mingling influences of yeast and hops. as the lace sags lugubriously down the glass in it's futile effort to rejoin the rest of the head, a quenching quaff reveals a mild carbonation and a wealth of toasty nutty-sweet malts dragging a slower-paced bounty of citrus hops behind. those combined flavors linger long and quite nicely, like the cool clear aftermath of a drenching rain shower on a summer day.

Bottle: Dark amber with lively head formation. One of my favourite english pints! Just the right balance of delicious malts and gentle lingering hops. Smooth.

Bottle. Very pretty dark amber body with a thick foamy head. Nose-dusty, musty, stale hops. Taste-semi-sweet, cherry, medium CO2, light alcohol, cloying, lots of fruity esters. Very drinkable.

Uniformly caramel brown and clear with an active head. One of the best labels in history! Lots of nutty malt on the nose with an underpinning of chocolate and spicy hops. Full-flavored, but smooth and gentle on the palate. Good hop character, spicy with a faint grapefruit citrus suggestion. A bit of ginger. Chocolate on the deep end of the finish. A nice, easy bitter to drink. Quaffable.

Poured a mahogany with a rocky, resilient head and nice aroma of toasty malt, caramel and spicy hops. Caramel flavour and some vinous raisiny flavours balanced well with hop bitterness. The carbonation was low, but the body had some nice fullness to it.

Pours to a great head, was expecting a rich golden colour, but instead the beer is a rich ruby red! Hoppy aroma from the glass which is stronger from the empty bottle. I guess the strongest flavour that comes through is a mild cherry taste. What I really like though is the dry finish, which lasts for quite a while.