Directors
Courage in Northampton, Northamptonshire, England 🏴
Bitter - ESB / Strong Bitter Regular|
Score
6.03
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Available in cask, bottles and cans, Courage Directors was originally brewed exclusively for the directors of the Alton brewery, but following demand, the beer was made available to the public. Full bodied with a clean, bitter taste, balanced with a sweet burnt, malty and fruity notes with a distinctive dry-hop aroma and flavour. Brewed with English Target hops, burnt Pale and Crystal malts.
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4.2/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 4
Flavor 4
Texture 4
Overall 4
Bottle from Tesco; clear dark amber pour with a massive bubbly beige head, aroma has dark fruits and brown sugar sweet malts, taste has caramel, autumn leaves, some vegetation, a hint of fruit, wasn’t expecting much, and you know what it didn’t deliver, probably better in cask.
Tried
from Bottle
on 12 Jun 2015
at 09:25
7/10
Lekkere PA
Tried
on 29 May 2015
at 23:44
6.4/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 6
Texture 8
Overall 6.5
500ml bottle from Asda. Pours clear amber with a short-lived white head. Aromas of butterscotch and caramel. Taste is sweet, faint hint of orange cordial. Clean finish. So clean I forgot I was drinking it.
Tried
from Bottle
on 03 May 2015
at 13:53
8/10
Tried
on 26 Apr 2015
at 15:55
5.6/10
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Appearance 4
Aroma 5
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 5.5
Bottle at the Bedford Arms, Bedford. Insipid amber, very flat for a bottle with hardly any head. Caramel, firewood and Turkush delight are represented in the interesting but ultimately unengaging scent. The taste is decent, with a respectable malt hit. Unfortunately it dissipates fairly quickly, leaving nothing for the finish. It’s not great.
Tried
from Bottle
on 20 Feb 2015
at 17:06
6.6/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 6
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 5.5
*Old rating from 2010. Nice smooth malty beginning. Hints of caramel and chocolate there, smooth and Ale typical bitter finish with dark malty aroma. Nice.
Tried
on 25 Jan 2015
at 16:33
7/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7
Cask at Lamb & Flag, London. Clear amber brown color with thin creamy off-white head, great lacing and soft visible carbonation. Aroma of caramel, toffee, biscuit and dried fruits. Taste starts with smooth light sweet caramel and toffee, follows by mild fruity acidity and mild bitter finish. Medium body, oily texture and soft carbonation in palate. Good enough to encourage you for another one...
Tried
from Cask
on 25 Jan 2015
at 03:49
5.8/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 5
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 6
part of my 2013 backlog. Dark amber colour with a small off-white head. Aroma toffee and malt. Taste has malts, caramel and a touch of Hop.
Tried
on 02 Jan 2015
at 12:04
6.4/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 6.5
Bottle. Clear amber body with a thin white head. Lively carbonation. Light lacing. Aroma of tea, copper and boiled vegetables. Flavour of fruit cake, bread and nuts. Thin body with a watery texture. Soft fizz. A reasonable Premium Bitter - I think this would be pretty good on cask.
Tried
from Bottle
on 26 Dec 2014
at 08:52
5.2/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 5
Texture 4
Overall 5
[First rating: 7/12/2014, RB score 6/3/4/2/9 (2.4)] Bottle that Dad shared with me- cheers. This is a beer that I’ve always thought of as reasonably decent when I’ve had it in good condition on cask, so I was interested to see how it would cope with the transition to bottle. It’s a bit lighter in colour than I remember it being on cask- amber with a thin off-white head. It’s definitely too fizzy. Up front though it’s quite promising- there’s a big fruity berry whiff. On tasting it’s much less pleasant- vague caramel pushed aside by assertive cardboard and metal. And the fizz is constantly annoying. Another decent UK cask ale is destroyed by pasteurization. Why do they do it? [Second rating: 1/1/2017, RB score 6/3/5/3/10 (2.7)] Gift from Maureen & Dave - cheers! Amber, thin white head, moderate fizz. Standard malty biscuitty supermarket bitter with slight metallic overtones.My overall rating is the average of both my rates.
Tried
from Bottle
on 07 Dec 2014
at 11:10