4.9/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 3
Flavor 5
Texture 6
Overall 4.5
[Keg at ZeroDegrees Reading] Pours a deep copper-red with a good, lasting creamy head - looks good at least. Oddly sporadic carbonation - one moment you’re getting annoying mouth prickles, the next it’s smooth. Vague malt aroma. Rather watery. Slight initial taste of caramel and toasted malt before it’s over-run with a metallic bitterness. Fortunately the metals do die away leaving a lasting dry finish with overtones of crackly autumn leaves. I love this brewpub, I love their food, I love the chilled-out atmos, I love their bravery in trying out varied continental styles. I’d love to be able to rate their beers as highly as I do the place itself, but unfortunately this is yet another brew that falls well short of the mark.
Tried
on 16 Sep 2009
at 18:03
5.3/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 5
Flavor 5
Texture 6
Overall 5
Quite pale looking. Decent head. A bit of grass in the aroma. Moderately full flavoured for a Pilsener and marginally better than the mass produced alternatives.
Tried
on 01 Sep 2009
at 14:45
4.6/10
—
Appearance 4
Aroma 4
Flavor 5
Texture 6
Overall 4.5
Medium brown colour with soapy head. It’s served rather too cold for much aroma to develop. Flavour is not unpleasant but just a bit bland. There’s a hint of maltiness and a mild hop finish but that’s it. Normally I’m a fan of Pale Ale.
Tried
on 01 Sep 2009
at 14:41
5.1/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 4
Flavor 4
Texture 6
Overall 6.5
Draft @ the brewpub. Pours a hazy orange color with a small white head. Has a wheat malty citrus aroma with some hints of banana. Fruity wheat malty slightly acidic citrus flavor. Has a fruity wheat malty citrus finish.
Tried
from Draft
on 14 May 2009
at 10:19
5.9/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 5
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 6.5
Draft @ the brewpub. Pours a slightly hazy copper color with a small white head. Has a fruity malty and slightly hoppy aroma with some hints of citrus. Fruity malty hoppy citrus flavor with some earthy hints. Has a fruity malty citrus hoppy finish with some bitterness in the aftertaste.
Tried
from Draft
on 14 May 2009
at 10:17
5.8/10
—
Appearance 4
Aroma 5
Flavor 6
Texture 8
Overall 6
[Cask at Reading beer festival] Dirty gold, no head, soft carbonation. Slight smokey hints, but not convinced they’re strong enough to be worthy of the name. However, it’s a very pleasant, refreshing easy-drinking beer with some citrus, grass and caramel.
Tried
from Cask
on 05 May 2009
at 07:56
6.9/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7.5
Cask gravity at Reading BF 09. Slight haze, orange/gold, very thin white head. Well it smells like a smoky marzen. Decent level of smokiness. REally quite pleasant. Goodish smoke and fruit. Does actually taste like a marzen too.
Tried
from Cask
on 04 May 2009
at 11:37
6/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 6
Cask gravity at Reading BF 09. Gold/orange colour, no real head. It’s an OK slightly orange fruity lager. I liked it, bit of bite on end, but fairly simple beer.
Tried
from Cask
on 04 May 2009
at 11:13
4.4/10
—
Appearance 4
Aroma 5
Flavor 5
Texture 4
Overall 3.5
[On tap at ZD Reading] Pours a pale gold, negligible white head. Soft carbonation. Dominated by grassy hop flavour, with a hint of lemon. Very dry finish with a slight sourness. Certainly more strongly flavoured than your average lager, but I’m not sure I liked the flavour - certainly struggled a little to finish this.
Tried
from Draft
on 05 Mar 2009
at 08:10
7/10
—
Appearance 4
Aroma 6
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8
[On tap at ZD Reading] Pours a light amber with a tiny white head; as with many ZD beers, the insipid appearance is not the strong point. It looks very pale indeed for an "English Ale", and I feared blandness ahead. Fortunately, that was not the case - this has plenty of the flavours of English hops - at the same tame earthy, fruity and with a hint of citrus. Carbonation is pleasantly light and tingly. Some sweetness in there, with a light, refreshing bitterness in the tail. It’s good but somehow feels like an imitation of an English bitter rather than a real English bitter. Nevertheless, it’s a great, refreshing session ale which is surprisingly tasty given the low ABV.
Tried
from Draft
on 05 Mar 2009
at 08:08