12/02/2014. WINDMILL, Chester Road, TABLEY, Cheshire, England (ROBINSONS)

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5

Cask at Baxter’s Court, JDW - London. Pours clear, bright gold with a frothy, off-white head. Lovely aroma, lots of pithy citrus, grapefruit, light piss, melon, mango. Light sweet flavor with pronounced but balanced hop character, further melon, urine, tangerine, grapefruit, faint pine. Light bodied with fine carbonation. Well balanced to finish with faint piney resins and grassy bitterness, then lots more juicy hop character, more melon, pee, grapefruit, papaya. Exceptional. Really, this stuff is outstanding.

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

Cask handpull at The Norman Wisdom JDW Deal. Clear gold lasting white head. Easy drinking light grapefruit golden ale. Lovely hop flavour throughout. Yes could easily do a session on this. Lovely. The hops are excellent .

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

Cask at The Narrows (JDW), Abingdon. Gleaming crystal-clear golden-amber with a thin white head and a light fizz. Big tropical fruit flavours with a good kick of pine afterwards. Very refreshing. Yep, it’s a good’un.

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7

8th Feb 2014. Hand-pulled pint in that Wetherspoons in Birmingham under the where the library used to be. I assume this is another collaboration purely for Wetherspoons? Anyway it was alright. Golden body with a white head which gave some good lacing. Mild citrus feel to the floral and fruity nose. The taste was less citrusy than the aroma indicated, there was a pleasant blend of flavours with the malt content sitting nicely with the hops to produce a well balanced and easy drinking IPA with enough about it to be interesting.

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7

Cask at the liberty bounds JDW. Aroma is lemony rind juicy fruits hop. Clear golden orange coloured pour with a lasting loose white head. Flavour Is dank orange fruit with some pine resin. Hop forward with clean malt. Very drinkable. Some alcohol presence. Palate is light and slightly sticky resin. Tasty drop.

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

Cask at the Willow Walk, 05/02/14. Golden amber with a moderate off white head head that stays for the show, Nose is orange, grapefruit, light pine, juicy hop ring, caramel, toasty malts. Taste comprises light pine, mandarin, good hop presence, red grapefruit, mango. Medium bodied, soft carbonation, grassy hop bitterness laced with tropicana in the close. Drinkable sessionable goodness. Hats off to JDW a year or so back I’d dread the next US collab thinking what dumbed down, muted representation of a US beer I was likely to find. The last few have been excellent and long may that be !

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

Having met Jesse Houck it was nice to be able to put a face to the ale on this one. Cask @ White Hart, Todmorden. Has a fine fusion of orange and grapefruits with some lime in there too with a slightly larger aroma than taste. Light amber with a small head.