Subsidiaries
6/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 6
Cask, handpump at The Nut Tree, Murcott, Oxon 09-05-09 Pours amber with a white head and a very slight haze to this. A fairly standard session beer that had some hoppiness on the nose but that delivered far less of a hoppiness in the mouth than it promised. Simple tasting with some light toffee flavours, touch of fruit. This was fine but possibly the weakest of the monthly specials encountered so far this year. A6 A3 F6 P3 Ov12 3.0
Tried
from Cask
on 11 May 2009
at 02:53
6.4/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 6.5
bottle as M&S Buckinghamshire Ale, bought at M&S Honiton. Hazy golden colour, small white head. Fruity nose and fruity flavours dominate the beer. Solid malty base with a nice fruity sourness and citrusy hints.
Tried
from Bottle
on 09 May 2009
at 15:26
6/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 5
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 7
Cask @ Edgar Wallace, Temple WC2. Pours a slightly hazy golden color with a small white head. Has a fruity malty slightly floral hoppy aroma. Fruity malty floral hoppy flavor. Has a sweetish fruity malty hoppy finish.
Tried
from Cask
on 02 May 2009
at 08:08
5.5/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 4
Flavor 5
Texture 6
Overall 7
Cask @ Market Porter, Borough SE1. Pours a clear golden color with a small white head. Has a fruity malty caramel aroma with some hoppy hints. Fruity malty caramel flavor. Has a fruity malty caramel finish with some hoppy hints in the aftertaste.
Tried
from Cask
on 17 Apr 2009
at 09:31
7.5/10
—
Appearance 10
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7
Cask gravity at The Hop Pole, Easter Beer Festival, Aylesbury, Bucks in the company of Loz, Chris O and Ruth 10-04-09 Pours a classic amber colour, really clear and with a nice white bubbly head. Aroma is fruit laden but with a genrous amount of malt. Taste is a good combination of the aforementioned fruit and malt but there is a nice hoppiness to this. There is a real clackey bitterness with this beer. I even get some light chocolate dustings amongst the fruit. It’s full flavoured, and at times it reminds me of an older style bitter, This is a really good drinker, and another nice beer in the range of monthly specials. Streaks of citrus leach around the mouth tendril like. Good beer and equal favourite of the day, so a good start. A7 A5 F7 P4 Ov14 3.7
Tried
from Cask
on 11 Apr 2009
at 02:08
5.9/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 5
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 6.5
Cask @ Volunteer Arms, GBBF 2008. Pours a dark brown color with a small off-white head. Has a roasted malty caramel aroma. Roasted malty nutty caramel flavor with some hints of chocolate. Has a roasted malty caramel finish.
Tried
from Cask
on 06 Apr 2009
at 07:26
6/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 5
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 7
Cask @ Volunteer Arms, GBBF 2008. Pours a clear golden color with a small white head. Has a fruity malty caramel aroma with some hoppy hints. Fruity malty slightly hoppy flavor with some hints of citrus. Has a sweetish malty hoppy finish.
Tried
from Cask
on 06 Apr 2009
at 07:13
7.2/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7
Cask at the Nut Tree, Murcott, Oxon 02-04-09 Pours golden with small white head, good clarity. Crisp and with a good bitter hoppiness but this is also quite dry and fairly malty some sweetness hangs around but even though its doesn’t come across as a bitter beer its surprising how long that bitterness stays for. Decent beer and glad that I’ve finally found it, in my local of all places. Following a conversation with Ian Mackey at Vale I have a feeling that the recipe for this may have been tweaked recently, though I may be getting that confused with another one of their beers. A7 A4 F7 P4 OV14 3.6
Tried
from Cask
on 02 Apr 2009
at 14:05
6.9/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 6.5
Cask, gravity at Merton Winter Beer Festival 6th and 7th Feb 2009 Pours copper in colour with an off white head. This must be amongst the most aromatic of all of the Vale beers that I’ve ever had. Really very floral nose, lavender and perfume both very much apparent. The flavour whilst very nice never quite manages to pull out all the stops like the aroma and whilst it is the usual very solid and tasty Vale beer you get the feeling that this could have been even better. I was impressed with the use of Chinook, Wilamette and Perle hops and the first two definately gave this a slightly different twist but after a while those hops and the malts that were also much in evidence subsided a little and this just slipped back into being a decent beer when it could have been better. Looking forward to the March monthly special and hope that the experimentation goes that little bit further. A8 A4 F6 P3 OV13 3.4
Tried
from Cask
on 08 Feb 2009
at 10:30
7.1/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 6
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
Cask, at the Hop Pole, Aylesbury, Bucks, 20-01-09 Pours a very deep amber with a white head and its looking in really good condition. Some sweet milk chocolate tickles the nostrils along with a hint of fruitiness. Fruitiness also comes through in the mouth, really nice tanginess but a good malty base and with a lovely slinky bitterness. Liked the hoppiness in this and also a real dryness at the end which is a chracteristic I liked and not one that I often get so much with the Vale beers. A very good beer, if I had one criticism then this was just the tiniest bit warm otherwise another excellent beer in this cracking pub A6 A4 F7 P4 OV15 3.6
Tried
from Cask
on 21 Jan 2009
at 02:53