Wicked Hathern Albion Special

The Canal Bank? Looks, smells and tastes like they’ve bottled some canal here. Fetid dishcloth aroma, with some background malt nuttiness I’m struggling to award any points to at all. Still, reddish and bilious. Flavour watery caramel maltiness with a wisp of smoke...just can’t be arsed drinking this when I’ve got a houseful of beers I might actually enjoy. Probably an indifferent beer badly bottled. Tipped it down the sink.

Bottle. Golden beer with a light head. The aroma is quite acidic and the flavour has a major hint of sulphur and a light amount of toffee and bitterness. Overall a disappointing beer.

Bottle from Hathern Post Office. Slightly hazy amber colour with a slim and soon gone white head. Fruit, caramel and malt in the aroma. Flavours are nutty and malty. Light bodied, bit of a thin finish perhaps, with a subtle amount of bitterness. Good stuff; I like it.

Sometimes beer rating can throw up a surprise when you are least expecting it.I thought this would be just another run of the mill bitter-but it wasn’t.Drunk from the bottle it was a smokey malty bitter very different from anything I have tried before.Slightly cloudy but this cant distract from this being a surpisingly different bitter.

Amber in colour. Aromas are sulphur, caramel and spices. Flavours are soft malts with sulphur with some nutiness. Some saltiness gives it an addictive quality. A little smoky, too. OK, if a bit thin and the finish isn’t inspiring either.