A 500ml bottle from M & S in Jersey. Pours a light brown / red colour with a white head. Aromas & tastes of caramel, fruits, nuts & malt. Medium body. Malty lightly bitter finish. Enjoyable

500ml bottle from M&S. Poured a crystal clear copper colour with a mostly lasting frothy white head. The aroma is malt, fake sugar, chemical, light woody hop. The flavour is moderate bitter, and sweet, with a crisp, light toffee caramel, woody hop bitter palate. Medium bodied with average to soft carbonation.

A ‘red ale’ (so Irish red-inspired) brewed by St. Austell in Cornwall, exclusively for the Marks & Spencer supermarket chain apparently; bought at the Delhaize in Lokeren (part of a temporary introduction to the Marks & Spencer range). Thick, eggshell-white, mousy, fluffy head, clear copper-tinged, indeed reddish bronze robe. Aroma of hard dry caramel candy, toasted peanuts, old ‘herbes de Provençe’ but not too strongly so, cooked cloth (clear pasteurization!), pumpkin seeds, some vague bitter honey, hints of tea, clay, nutmeg, fried apple peel and chewing gum. Clean onset, malt-fruity with a touch of apricot and some dried apple peel, dryish with medium carbonation, slick and slightly oily body; toasty, hard-caramelly malt profile, a tad nutty perhaps but in any case more bitter than sweet, with the toastiness eventually enhanced by a herbal hoppy bitterness, a tad tea-ish and resinous. Ends mildly dry, herbal and toasty, but coated in an overall ‘cooked’ effect of pasteurization, regrettably. Drinkable, but simplistic and feeling a bit industrial due to the pasteurization. Below average for a bottled English ale, really.

500ml bottle from M&S. Reddish brown with a moderate off white head. Caramel aroma, caramel and dried fruit flavour. Ok but nothing exciting

Bottle at home, 04/02/18. Reddish amber with a well presented light beige cap. Nose is tangy fruit rinds, caramel wafer, light spice, biscuit, nutty tones. Taste comprises caramel, dried fruits, brown sugar malt, fruit loaf, figs, moscavado sugar. Medium bodied, fine carbonation, semi drying close. Decent enough for the style.

Bottle shared in London at the folks - amber pour with white head. Sweet and toasted malty, some caramel , citrus fruity notes of orange, slight citrus rind, grassy twiggy hoppy bitter finish.

Bottle 500ml. @ The Shnoodlepip, London. [ As Marks & Spencer Cornish Red Ale ].Clear medium orange amber colour with a small to average, frothy, good lacing, mostly lasting to diminishing, off-white to light light beige head. Aroma is moderate malty, sweet matl, caramel, sugary. Flavor is moderate sweet with a average duration, burnt malt, caramelized malt, caramel. Body is medium, texture is oily to watery, carbonation is soft. [20160729] 5-3-5-3-9

A big pillowy head that subsided to good lacing in the tankard. It was a nice colour, but there wasn’t a huge aroma from the beer. There was a very light taste to the beer, gentle malt that I really had to think about to identify, with no discernible hop flavour. I’m all for subtle beer, but this was verging on the flavourless! The mouth feel from all of the malt was nice and the abv was sensible. I’ve had much better from M&S and this is not one to revisit.

500ml bottle: BBE Oct 2017. Opened at home on 18th March 2017. Poured carefully into an Abbot Ale badged glass tankard. No sediment left the bottle, so I got a lovely clear beer: red hue to the brew (as the name would suggest), on top a full but swiftly fading beige head. Light nose of malts and nuts: both became stronger in intensity as the beer warmed a little. Liked the semi-sweet flavour of this smooth, oily bodied brew: hops playing second fiddle to the malty base.

Bottle from Marks & Spencer, Halifax. Copper-red with no head. Has a light malty sweetness in both aroma and taste, but a little more prevalent in the latter. It has a very palatable texture.