Wychwood Fiddlers Elbow (Pasteurised)

Brewed by Wychwood (Refresh UK - Marstons plc)
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Witney, England

Nice malty nose with a purely English character. Fairly bland with light malts, and balanced hops. Not much distinctive flavor to speak of. Color is pale amber and head is full and fluffy with good retention and decent lacing.

Another interesting-looking bottle from the folks at Wychwood. Unfortunately, I would love to love this English Bitter, but just can’t bring myself to do so. Its terribly average. Pretty pale red in color. Bit of skunkiness to the smell. Taste is subtley sour and a little peppery-- like an Antipasto?!?-- red bell peppers and oregano. Weird. Ultimately thin and transparent on the finish.

Such an up and down brewery, this, the only beer that really exceeded my espectations was Hobgoblin. This one, at least came in a brown bottle, nicely shaped vessel, too, classy label, nice artwork...but, who cares, it’s what’s inside that matters, so crack, and pour and away we go! Clear, deep amber hue, looking every bit the part for an English pale ale, slim, swiftly disappearing head...aroma is sweet and hoppy, plenty of juicy fruit in the nose, peach and apricot, the like, plus a good deal of malt in their too...I like it just fine... Taste, though, is underwhelming, though that could be part of the plan...does nothing on the palate, just slides in and swims around, darts about and departs without leaving much of a trace in the mouth. Tasty to a point, eventually kind of dull...clean and crisp, but not memorable at all in the flavor...kind of a dud, but drinkable, despite. Once more, I have to repeat a phrase i hate to use, but there’s too many apt occasions: "Not bad, just not much."

500 ml bottle. Wow, another beer available in VT that I haven’t had. How exciting, how....boring. Clear light golden, huge foamy lasting white head. Very simple malty-sweet nose, hint of skunk. Flabby cereal texture and flavor with a bit of caramel, thin and a bit brackish late on the palate. No more, please.

Horrible aroma, makes me think i’m in store for some fizzy armpit. Now this is not a very complex beer and my points will make people beleive i ddint like it. that is not the case as i really dug this. It doesnt smell all that great, isnt horribley complex, and looks pretty banal, BUT its got a very good flavor. The finish was interesting, i couldnt place the taste. i’m leaning towards a bit of a nutty/bitter character.

This poured a deep amber color with a frothy head that slowly died down but remained enough to coat the sides of the glass. It’s got a caramel malt odor, some citric bitterness, and a bit of grassiness. The malt stays in the flavor, and the cirtric bite increases as you drink. Leaves a not unpleasant tart feeling in the mouth. I like it.

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meh! It’s orange with a thick offwhite head that sticks around for the journey. But that’s about all that’s enchanting on this excursion it’s skunky/grass citrus taste was rather off putting... especially for an ESB which you expect to be more hops and bittersweet. A marginal failure

Bottle from Sainsburys. A pale amber/orange colour with a creamy off-white head. Hoppy, slightly spicey aroma. Flavour is hoppy then bitter, with some yeast at the end. Dry with a longish bitter aftertaste. Medium bodied. Not too bad at all. Don’t get the "skunkyness" referred to by others, perhaps because it’s not travelled far, is in a brown bottle and still has a year to go on its best before date.