1st August 2023
GBBF Day 1. Cask. Hazy gold beer, small pale cream colour head. Palate is light and pretty dry, decent fine carbonation. Thin but sweet malts, a thin creamy sweetness. Smooth pine. Decent citric hops, orange and mandarin in depth. Sprinkle of hop spice on the semi dry finish. Nice.

NERAX cask, 4/20/23. Lightly hazy, dull brass-bronze. Sugar of some sort, be it jaggery, fructose or malt. Clean, hint of sulfur. Soft and malty, mango throughout with sulfur, honey character and very low hop. Maybe all the hop varietals combine to give an interesting but hard to pinpoint character. Clean, well-done.

Brewery draught, 2/1/23. Brassy-golden. Clear, small, off-white head. Heavily fruity nose shows a bit of bubble gum and very strong fruit esters - a mix of tropical/melon and light red berry. Calvados is light, but contributes to the fruity character with the apple and spice. Too much melon, table sugar and more melon that just comes off too twangy and weird. Maybe more bubble gum too. Lightly tart, good tannin/texture but I just don't like the way the flavor profile came out. Too much sweet-twang/punch.

Brewery lukr, 2/1/23. Bright copper-amber-rust. Large, off-white head is well-retained. Mega crusty bread with hints of orange peel and red berry. Very low hopping with just a dusting of dried herbs and light pepper. Lots of base malt sweetness - not overdone on the medium malts. Clean. Similar flavor profile, very bready and mostly on the base malt white bread sweetness but with light red berry and hints of toast/caramel from the medium malts. Wouldn't mind a bit more hops here as there's borderline none that come through here. Even if just for a bit more balancing bitterness. Clean, no alcohol noted.

Brewery draught, 2/1/23. Clear, brassy-blonde. Small, white head. Nose is a bit dense to start with some berry-like yeast character that smells a bit odd/off. Hints of softer smoke emerge on the finish, with cracker malts and low hops. Gets better as it breathes. The flavor persists from the nose (the weird floral/yeasty one) but again fades as the beer warms/breathes. Otherwise it's a very straightforward white bread with soft smoke and a medium-light body. Just something slightly off here, though it still drinks fine.