Monpazier Pale Ale

Amber colour with foamy head. It's a malty beer with a light hop bitterness. Plain and straightforward but decent.

Draught Towering, ultra-dense & fine yellow head. Floral nose, fruity, curious aroma as from medlars. Bit woody, dried fruit, if this time more like figs if not as sweet as dried figs by miles. Caramel, again without the sweetness, and almonds, turning into bitter almond in the finish. Bit sticky MF and feeling way heavier than 3.8% would warrant. Tasty!

Standard English bitter by Bastide (even if the brewer hesitates to call it a ‘bitter’ for commercial reasons, being located in southwestern France), tasted straight from the keg as an incompletely developed beer, manually bottled by the brewer himself – thank you Mr. Davies! Loose, off-white, unstable and dissipating head, deep orange blonde robe with amber tinge, almost a bit coppery even. Aroma of apple peel, caramel, peach flesh, a touch of butterscotch, wormwood leaf, unripe pear, peanut peel, mugwort, bitterroot. Rounded, fruity onset, apple peel and unripe apricot notes, very soft carb, supple and smooth mouthfeel; peanutty maltiness with a soft, wet-toasty core, dryish and bitterish, the bitterness of course reinforced by a grassy, even rooty hoppiness in the end, blending nicely with the toasted malt bitterness into a dry, quenching finish. Tasted too young, of course, but with that knowledge and from mere experience, I can easily predict that this will definitely turn into a full-blown, balanced, dry and very quaffable English bitter indeed. I will get a chance of re-tasting this at the coming Ghent Bierfestival and may rate it again then, in its final form as intended by the brewer; so this rating is to be seen as preliminary.

33cl Bottle, thanks Harmen! Hazy amber colour, off-white head. Aroma of amber malts, light metallic, light floral, tobacco. Flavour follows, decent English bitter but has a few slight off-notes.