From cask at Blackfriars. Pours clear and golden amber to light brown with a small white head. Light malty aroma with a smooth caramel note. Flavour is mild bitter with a light sweetness coming through. Sweet caramel malty finish with a light bitterness showing through. Bitter and quite dry finish.

Draught. Amber with slight head. Slight aroma of seaweed. Light body with very light carbonation. Flavours include seaweed and bread with very little bitterness. It’s OK, but not good.

Bottled@SBWF2008. Deep copper colour, mediumsized head. Aroma is sweet caramel, mild spices, hops. Flavour is very much hops, mild cramel and some grassyness. Mild licorice too. Pleasant and easy to drink bitter.

(Bottle 50 cl) Clear amber golden with a tall dense beige head leaving a solid lacework. Fresh and lightly grapefruitish hop aroma. Medium body with a soft mouthfeel. Flavours of nuts and caramel and a fairly bitter finish. Neat. 020508

Clear amber with medium off white head. Sweet with fruity and caramel notes. Ends mild bitter.

Clear brown with white head. Sulphur aroma. Light body and carbonation. Taste not terribly pleasant with a sharp seawater tang.

Cloudy golden with medium off white head. Sweet fruity flavor with floral hops and caramel notes. Creamy mouthfeel and bitter end.

[Keg at The Bugle, Reading] Astonishingly, in all the time I’ve worked in Reading amongst its many Courage pubs, I’ve never come across this beer before, and as a lover of milds I was quick to try it. It pours deep brown, almost black, with a moderate but lasting creamy head. There’s very little smell, which makes your first taste more of a surprise. This is dominated by beautiful deep, roasted malts, with a hint of coffee in the background. Unfortunately, once you’ve enjoyed the first hit of flavour you realise that it is a little weak and watery, and feel that it could have been much improved by being cask conditioned rather than merely kegged. That said, it still has a few surprises up its sleeve. There is an unusual twist of lemon in the finish, and a growing gentle smokiness in the aftertaste. It leaves an odd mixture of dryness and syrup on the inside of your mouth. There are certainly many better milds out there than this, but considering this is a relatively low ABV kegged effort invented by a brewer whose other beers weren’t that much cop, this is actually a pretty decent effort. I wonder if, now that Wells & Youngs have taking it over, they might produce a cask version…? We can but hope…

Cask-conditioned at the Swan, Tockington Gloucs 20/5/08. Deep amber coloured with a moderate white head. A bit lightweight in both flavour and aroma, but this resulted in the beer being inoffensive rather than poor. Had less character than the Bristol version I used to drink a lot of, but the malty edge was decent enough. There are a lot worse bitters around.