Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
My first brown ale (it’s the most common here) and usually one of the best you can find in large grocery stores here. Nice caramel,honey taste.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5
Neutral aroma, no surprises. Small head and mostly diminishing, OK flavour, and nice palate. OK all round beer.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 4.5
Can. Aroma of dark bread. Chestnut brown colour, unstable creamy head. Bready flavour, quite boring. A little watery.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5
Tapped. Dark copperbrown colour, decent white bubbly/foamy head. Citric barley aroma with a bit of redwine in it too. Wellbalanced, a bit too much carbonation. Flavour is sweet citrus and barley with small hints of malt and bitterness in the aftertaste.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5
Cask conditioned at the Prince of Wales, Wimbledon, London, Christmas 2004. This winter seasonal is very different from the ordinary Directors bitter. Mahogany brown colour, low head. Aroma has malts, dark fruits, sherry and oak. Sweetish flavour, notes of sherry, dried fruits and Christmas cake. Reminds me of a Scottish "heavy" with Christmas elements added. Low bitterness. At 5.5% ABV, alcohol is evident but not overwhelmingly so. Interesting.
jgb9348 (11828) reviewed Extra Smooth from John Smiths 21 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 4 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 4
Clear amber/copper coloured body with a perfect frothy tan (widget/nitrogenated) head. Aroma of pale malt, caramel, light english hops, some apples & cardboard. Light/medium bodied; Velvety texture to boot. Appley taste with some bitter malt noticeable up front. Mild hop flavour-fairly negligable. Aftertaste clean and fresh. Some malt bitterness-no sweetness nor alcohol tastes. Overall, a mild and underpowering bitter. Not horrible, but not impressive in the slightest bit. I sampled this 440 mL can purchased at the LCBO on Queen’s Quay in Toronto, Ontario on 16-October-2004 on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Rerate: Hmm...best before 31.05.2005. Guess this is an old bottle, but, since I was wise enough to grab it from the back of the shelf, where the bottle was shaded from light, it’s not skunky despite the clear glass bottle. What’s with that picture ? What I’m drinking right now is much closer to black (really dark brown). The head was small but it left lots of beautiful lacing before it vanished. The appearance rating remains the same. Those is a little more faint than before, but my nose is half blocked, so I’ll blame it on that. The aroma rating remains the same. Flavor...pleasant, caramelly, fruity, sweet, with some nuttyness in the finish. A bit watery though. The flavor and palate arome remain the same, and so does the overall rating. I know that there are probably better browns, but this is the only one I can get, and I like it. It’ll probably make a great gateway beer for those-that-don’t-know. Old review:This is a really fine widely available ale. Looks nice, and smells really good, not skunky at all, which really suprised me because the bottle is clear. The taste is pleasant too, just sweet enough, and caramelly, with no apparent bitterness. It hasn’t got much of a body though, and it’s a bit forgettable. I’ll try it again.
Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 6
Can: Poured a clear light brown ale with below average head with minimum retention. Aroma is quite weak with light roasted malts being noticeable. Taste is generally quite refreshing, with light roasted notes and a slight dry aftertaste. Overall, this is a refreshing drink, better then your average macros, but that is lacking something to make it really special.
bb (18428) reviewed John Courage from John Smiths 21 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5.5
Bottle. Copper color, beige head. Not much aroma. No overly strong flavors, but malt backing to a bit of spicy earthiness.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 4 | Flavor - 2 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 3.5
Pours brown of course. Aroma is nutty and malty. The flavor is where this brew loses marks. Its nice to look at but there is almost no taste at all. Very bland and weak. There is a little more flavor out of a tap than out of the clear glass bottles but not much to change a rating.