Old Brewery Bitter (Cask)
(has 2 batches)

Cask at the Glittering Star, Darlington. Clear golden brown amber colour, creamy white head and aroma of malt & toffee. Taste is sweetish malty caramel, with a light dry bitterness and slight fruity & toffee notes. Creamy smooth mouthfeel and medium carbonation. Overall a quite drinkable bitter.

15th January 2013
Wooden cask at the lovely old Anchor Tap - Tower Bridge. Almost clear amber beer, good pale cream coloured head. Softish and semi dry palate. Nice mouthfeel. Good tangy dried fruits with a pleasant hint of sourness. Semi dry finish with super mild bitterness. Nice bitter! Seems to be rounded off and very drinkable.

Sweet berry aroma, has a hint of this in the taste but is standard stuff in reality.

Cask tasted at Chandos, near Trafalgar sq, Londoon on 19 May 2012. Amber clear appearance, creamy medium head, hoppy tangy taste, slight flavor of coffee beans, low carbonation, long finish. Very nice bitter.

half a pint at the red Lion, Conisbrough. Creamy white head. Clear golden blond pour. An ok bitter

half a pint at a Sam Smiths pub, Conisbrough. Decent white head. Clear amber/blond pour. Nice enough bitter

I was amazed to find I’d never reviewed this beer having drank it on numerous occasions when in London and other Sam Smith’s pub around the country over the years: anyway I’ve put that right today. This review is of a pint, hand pulled in the ‘Citte of Yorke’ in Holborn, London; a lovely old pub listed on the BA beerfly database. Sadly this is now the only beer Sam Smith’s brewery brings out in cask form, everything else is keg or bottle, not cask. Clear amber body with a creamy head of bubbles which are off-white in colour and produce some good thick lacing as I down the liquid it covers. The nose is a complex mix of wood notes, autumn leaves, caramel and a fresh loaf of bread. The taste is equally as complex: malts just about lead the way with a good hop contingent coming up fast behind, well balanced and easy to drink. Semi-sweet from the caramel like molasses in the malts, but with an undertone of hop bitterness which asserts itself half way through each gulp (this isn’t a sipping beer, it’s a gulper). Still under £2.00 a pint in an historic central London pub (Oct 2011), you can’t go wrong. In fact I had another half in the beautiful Princess Louise half an hour after rinsing this pint I’ve just reviewed.

Cask @ Swan and Three Cygnets, Durham 071011
Amber, bit orangey, clear with rich creamy head, good lacing.
Aroma....light.....caramel malt, bready, light hop, some apple
Taste of caramel malt, light bitter hops, appley.
Smooth, creamy mouthfeel. Not much finish - some caramel malt.
A nice beer, smooth but a bit appley. Cost only I think £1.60/pt. Incredible value for money!

Orange copper colour. Aroma has some wood. Flavour is a little nutty but has a light sourness from the wood. Moderate level of maltiness. A bit dry in the finish.

Cask at Cramond Inn, Cramond, Scotland. Light amber colour, creamy off white head. Aroma of light fruity malts, faint caramel. Flavour is very watery, light fruity, melon, light grainy, light bitter hoppy finish. Light bodied, watery, nah..