Bottle from the Dunster Village Store & Deli, Dunster. Darker amber with a thin head. Lightly sweetened traditional English ale with a lowish malty-bitterness.

From a very English 50 cl bottle, acquired through Jeremy and Sabine, cheers! Strongly cobweb-lacing, pale yellowish white, moussy head leaving a medium thick rim on the edge and a closed blanket over the liquid, colour is a cristal clear, pure orangey amber with no visible fizz. Aroma has a slight ’stale cat pee’ lightstruck effect but fortunately this smell remains in the background and fades very quickly, allowing the true bouquet to shine: field flowers, dried sage, freshly toasted bread, roasted walnut, fresh thyme somewhere, ’natural’ iron, red apple, wormwood leaves, olive oil with dried Mediterranean herbs, dried grapefruit peel. Crisp onset with the typically Anglo-Saxon ’clean’ fruitiness, some subdued hints of apple peel, fresh bell pepper, dried berries, very little sweetness if any at all, minerally and generally neutral but with a touch of hop bitterness already announcing itself; carbo is soft and just fit for the style, mouthfeel is very supple, slick, light and a bit oily. Toasted malts make up the middle phase as expected, a bit nutty, bitterish like burnt bread with an ever so slight metallic tinge, supporting the announced hop bitterness which is the true star of this show, consisting of old-fashioned Euro noble hops yielding a notably resinous, earthy, floral, spicy bitterness in the finish, both in taste and in retronasal aromas. The flowers, chamomille- and violet-like, keep hanging around in the nose for a while, as the juicy, bitterishly toasted malts proceed their way into the throat. In these American-inspired experimental craft beer times, it is good to revisit classic European traditions every now and then, and this one clearly embodies the old English ’best bitter’ tradition as good as any of the more familiar names in this intermediate subcategory of the good old bitter style (think Sussex Best Bitter or Black Sheep Best Bitter). This kind of commitment to tradition should remind us of the fact that without all these noble European traditions, there would not have been a craft beer revolution. This particular example therefore demands respect, and justly so: technically perfectly executed, true to its style and applying the Target and East Kent Goldings hops in an elegant way, balancing them with toasted malt bitterness, resulting in a drying, quenching bitter with very high drinkability. I can imagine this is a lot better when cask conditioned, though, as should be the case with all traditional English bitters, but this almost goes without saying. In general: exemplary for its particular substyle and very accomplished as such.

Cask at Stortford Beer Festival 2011. A hazy amber beer with a bubbly white head. The aroma has notes of malt, phenols, and fruit. The flavor is sweet with notes of fruits and malt, leading to a dry phenolic finish.

Bottle 500ml.Clear medium amber orange colour with a average, frothy, fair lacing, mostly diminishing, off-white to white head. Aroma is moderate malty, toasted - caramel, light hoppy, green grass, plastic notes. Flavour is moderate sweet and light moderate bitter with a average to long duration, plastic. Body is medium, texture is oily, carbonation is soft. [20110619]

Bottled. Amber colour, small slightly off-white head. Aroma is fruits, floral notes as well as some slight sourish wooden notes. Flavour is sweet malts, some floral and quite earthy notes. Balanced.

cask at bow ... copper ... sweet toffee fruits ... light fruit malts ... toffee liitle orange ... ok but nothing special

Cask-conditioned at the Seven Stars, Bristol, 13/12/09. Deep gold with a decent, frothy white head. Aroma of biscuit malts, summer fruits and grassy hops. Flavour began with some sweet malts, aprciots and a dryish, bitter finish. Good.

bottle, bought somewhere in rural South Devon. Cloudy golden colour, mid-sized fluffy head. Fruity nose. Wheaty and malty with a yeasty touch and some aromatic and bitter hops with a sharp and woody character, which gives this beer its very own rural character. Slightly fruity (peach, mango).