omhper (44752) reviewed One Hop: Vanguard from Grand Union 18 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 2 | Flavor - 4 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 3.5
Cask at Peterborough Beer Fest. Straw colour. Fatty vegetable aroma. Sweet and fruity with a wealth of stale butter and boiled vegetables. Fairly softwith light resiny saltiness in the finish. Not good! Where’s the hop?
fonefan (84534) reviewed Bitter from Grand Union 18 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5
Cask (handpump) @ Magpie & Crown, TW8 Brentford, London. Clear medium amber color with a small to average, fizzy, fair lacing, mostly lasting, off-white head. Aroma is moderate malty, roasted, bread, dust. Flavor is light to moderate sweet and moderate bitter with a average to long duration. (Hop / malt bitter with a little earth flavor). Body is light to medium, texture is watery, carbonation is flat, finish feel is light metalic.
oh6gdx (51139) reviewed Honey Porter from Grand Union 18 years ago
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Cask@GBBF2007. Dark amber colour, small brown bubbly head. Aroma is roasted malts, coffee, chocolate and very mild honeyish hints. Flavour is the same, but the honey is showing up a bit stronger.
Beertalk (16424) reviewed Honey Porter from Grand Union 18 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
Black with a small light brown head. Roast, and toffee aromas with some sweet honey notes. Sweet flavour with hints of charcoal and roast bitterness.
Harrisoni (26233) reviewed One Hop: Amarillo from Grand Union 18 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Cask handpull at Simple Simons, Canterbury. Amarillo is more of an aromatic hop than bittering, so it’s a bit thin. Finish is birilliant and light sherberty, leafy, it’s lovely. But not great. Gold, lasting white head. Juicy. Amarillo’s are gorgeous, put lacks fullness.
Beese (811) reviewed Bitter from Grand Union 18 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 4 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
Pours a fairly standard bitter colour with a reasonable amount of slightly yellow head. My pint had a bit of a funky smell I’ve got with a few GU beers, but it’s not too overpowering. The taste is definitely better than the aroma, there’s some nice bitter hop notes which lead to a dry taste which ends with some lingering malty sweetness. Very drinkable bitter.
Beese (811) reviewed Best from Grand Union 18 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Pours a copper colour ith some slightly yellow head. Quite a nice, spicey aroma and a fairly full initial flavour, some strong hop bitterness. It fades a bit fast, but I thought it was quite nice.
Beese (811) reviewed Gold from Grand Union 18 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
Pours a golden colour with a moderate ammount of head. Light, hoppy aroma. Somewhat predictable hoppy flavour with a little malt in their for balance. Not bad, but nothing particularly unique.
Downender (11275) reviewed Gold from Grand Union 18 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5.5
Cask-conditioned at the JDW pub, Chancery Lane, London WC2, 9/7/07. Golden with a lacy white head. This was seriously dull. The aroma was of tired hops followed by flavours of more hops which had seen better days.
Fin (18365) reviewed One Hop: Simcoe from Grand Union 18 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
Cask at Merton Summer Beer Festival 06-07-07. What a stunner. For me when I had a sneaky taste of this well before we opened this beer and the Bowman Quiver were always likely to be fighting it out to be my favourite, but what a contrast. In the Red corner was the Grand Union Simcoe a beer that was looking for the big knockout it was an out and out impact beer that was exciting, vibrant and a big hitter. In the blue corner was the Bowman Quiver equally exciting but more prepared to go the distance and seeking to come out on top on points, on this occasion the Grand Union Simcoe come out on top but for all it’s attributes it was taken quite a long way by the Quiver. This beer poured golden with a superb clarity, the hoppy nose hit you straight away stunning aroma of grapefruit. The taste just zapped you wow what a zapper the citrus just smacked home, and it didn’t stop there that grapefruit and bitterness just kept on lingering, christ you get your moneys worth with this little beauty you can still taste it for ages afterwards. It reminded me of the old ’You’ve been tangoed advert’, with this beer you really had been Simcoed, it seemed like someone had came up with a half of hollowed out grapefruit and then proceed to rub it all over one’s face and stuff it in the mouth before legging it. I warned people to be wary of what they drank after this as you really needed something that would counteract that bitterness afterwards, when I initially tried this on Thursday I had a couple of more standard gentler bitters after which were totally ruined by this as the bitterness from the Simcoe was still evident in everything I drank, you needed a porter or the Smokestack Lightning after I felt. A truly great bitter, it’s just a shame that it will only be around for this month. This was [b] joint Beer of the Festival along with Bridge of Allan Red Mist [/b]