Cask at Tapps, Conwy. Opaque dark brown. Thing foamy beige head. Flavour it's medium sweet with a light bitter edge. Cheap chocolate. Watered down milky coffee. Peripheral berries. And a chewy nuttiness. Thick. Creamy. Soft-average carbonation. Long dry somewhat astringent finish. There's something about this Porter that just doesn't work for me. Jarring mixture of sweetness, underpowered bitterness and this misplaces nutty streak. It did gain more mocha as I drank on, but...

Badged as 'American Pale', it's clear and golden with a bubbly white head and a fruity nose. Fresh and fruity, some tartness with a soft light malt backbone, little kicks of citrus bitterness and a dry bittersweet finish.

Cambrian Railway Beer Festival 2025

Clear amber / chestnut brown with a small bubbly off-white head and a fruit malt aroma. Slightly grainy with floral notes, fruit malt, some tartness and a touch of floral bitterness.

Cambrian Railway Beer Festival 2025

Cask at the Whippet Inn, Lichfield, 27/02/2025.
Golden blonde topped with an off white head.
Nose is pale malts, melon, straw, tangerine.
Taste comprises citric tinged straw, grass, light citric fruit, soft breads.
Medium bodied, soft carbonation, semi drying close.
Okay.

Hand-pulled pint in the Pheasant Inn and Brewhouse on Wednesday 29th January 2025. Slight haze in the golden/blonde body, white head. Citrus notes with a stone fruit undertone, some mild sourness creeping in too.

Strong wild ale – in fact dubbed ‘barleywine’ – from a Welsh craft brewery specialising in farmhouse style ales, whatever that means nowadays… Gusher, so be careful when opening the 37.5 cl bottle. Medium thick, off-white, regularly edged, dissipating head leaving a flat ‘island’ of foam in the middle; hazy peach blonde robe with ‘dirty’ beige hue and lots of even darker, brownish protein and dead yeast bits depositing at the bottom of the glass – in all, this beer does not start off well visually speaking… Aroma of strong Brettanomyces effects, funky and estery, with notes of pickled apricots and pickled lemons, stale orange juice, urine, orange wine, overripe yellow plum, damp hay, spoiled carrot soup, wet wood, a whiff of whisky for sure, oak-induced vanillin, wine must, wet gravel, petrichor but also band aid and other ‘clinical’ phenols, even a – luckily very faint and volatile – whiff of gasoline. ‘Wildly’ estery onset with impressions of overripe plum, cooked gooseberry, old storage apple and pickled apricot, sweet with a softly tart edge – yet no outspoken acidity; medium carb, a bit prickly, with smooth mouthfeel, feeling less vinous and ‘full’ than expected at this strength. Fluffy, cakey and very bready malts, the breadiness obviously reinforced by yeast, with this heavy load of fruity esters continuing unabated, including that tartly edged pickled apricot or plum effect; woody tannins grow slowly, with clear vanilla effect from the oak wood and with the whisky in its trail, adding a background glow of Speyside whisky, warming yet nowhere too wry or boozy. Retronasally, the clinic- and band aid-like phenols are still there, but far less intrusively so than I was fearing; leathery and funky Brett effects linger with drying effect. A complicated case of a strong wild ale – a beer of mixed fermentation at indeed barleywine-esque strength, or at least much stronger than is averagely the case in this kind of beers, though much of that alcohol comes from the whisky barreling. The gushing, overall ‘dirtiness’ and overly phenolic profile are signs of the Brett being not well under control and downgrade the experience, but there is the bright orange (even orange wine) side to keep things entertaining and the wood and whisky are elements well integrated without dominating too much, something I can always appreciate. Interesting but not nearly flawless – a ‘benefit of the doubt’ kind of case for me.

440ml can from Good Spirit Co, Glasgow. Pours a clear pale golden with a white head. Aromas & tastes of white grapes, lemon peel & hops. Crisp light acidic finish.