5.5

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5

Draught quarter-pint at NERAX on 5/3/07
Deep bronze-gold body shows off the wonderful color of maris otter without any caramel/crystal malts. The beer is bright with a medium-sized white head atop, providing moderate lacing.
Some papery, grainy malts show a very strong attenuation and only a bit of the honey character I associate with maris otter is present on the finish. Not very hoppy, with some grassiness and light citric notes, mostly bitterness, it seems. Dry, yellow fruits emerge lightly, with some buttercreaminess coming on as well, with warming. Medium to low strength of aroma. Nothing particularly wrong with it, but not very characterful either.
Sweet, soft maris otter texture gives light honey notes that are interrupted by some scratchy, over-attenuated malt tannins in the middle. Ends with some light residual sugars, an odd butteriness that I cant decide if it is diacetyl or just malt and ester interplay. Loose body, on the lighter side, with stale/nutty/vegetal hop character and minimal bitterness. Strange, I won’t say flawed, but just dosent strike me as a very carefully brewed beer.