6.4

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

Cask at Baltic Fleet, Liverpool. Pours clear gold with white foam. Aroma & taste: pale malts, orange, grapefruit, honey hints. Light to medium sweet and bitter. Medium body with fine carbonation

7

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 7

Handpull cask at the Baltic Fleet, Liverpool. Deep gold and clear with a good-sized white head. Grainy, woody and slightly honeyed aroma. Taste is hard to pin down: bittersweet, Earthy, almost touches of umami before fading to a very British bitterness in the finish. Different and moreish.

6

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

On cask at The Grapes, pours a clear pale copper golden with a small white head. Aroma brings out subtle English hops, light toasted biscuity malt. Flavour is much the same, with subtle English hops and gentle toasted malt. Not much to write about here. Standard boring cask ale.

5.6

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 5.5

On cask at The Grapes, pours a clear copper with a small off-white head. Aroma brings out bready malt, nary a trace of hops. Flavour is smooth, with fungal notes and bready malt. Finishes slightly bitter. Very fungal. Standard cask bitter.

7.1

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

Bottle from Black Toad. Appearance - hazy yellow with a big, foamy, white head. Nose - loads of lemon, orange and orange zest. Lightly bready. Taste - orange, bready and lemon zest. Palate - light bodied, bitter finish which is green hop and malt. Overall - good.

6

A golden ale with a thin lacing white head. In aroma, sweet fruity biscuit malt with grassy British hops, light butterscotch, pleasant and smooth. In mouth, a nice biscuit malt with grassy British hops, light mineral notes, pleasant and smooth. On tap at Ship and Mitre.

6.8

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

Cask at Harkers Arms, Chester. Pours “bitter brown” with a small off-white head. Quite a mixture in the aroma, malts, autumn fruits and dried apricots. In the mouth it is sweet and creamy but with an underlying bitterness. Flavour has malts, traditional hops, nuts and a hint of spices. Berry fruits come in later and are the mainstay of the finish. Not at all bad.

7.2

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

[50cl bottle from the Garden Centre at Burleigh Dam on the Wirral.] A bright pale amber pour with lots of carbonation and a thick white head; fresh hedgerow hop aroma; fresh hoppy taste with some blackberry fruit; then a dry lightly spiced hoppy finish. Excellent.

05/06/2016. GALLAGHERS PUB & BARBERS SHOP, 20 Chester Street, BIRKENHEAD, Merseyside, England

04/06/2016. PIED BULL, 57 Northgate Street, CHESTER, Cheshire, England