Cask at Birmingham Beer Festival; dark brown pour with a thin off white head, slight roast malt aroma, taste has hints of vanilla, along with some roasted malts.

Cask @ Old Gate, Hebden Bridge. Clear but dark with a small red glow and a creamy off-white head. Has a hint of roasted malt in its aroma and taste, but not much, however it’s a decent crisp mild, but mild being the word.

Cask @ Old Gate, Hebden Bridge. Pale gold with a thin head. Has a hop-infused malty bitterness with an acute aroma for it. Has a floral character.

Dubbed an American pale ale but stylewise I’d prefer to regard this as a golden ale with American influences. Thin but stable, snow white head over a beautifully, pure yellow golden coloured beer with a very slight haze. Aroma of honeyish malt sweetness, lemon zest, fresh pineapple, chamomille, green apple, white bread, dough and some peppery and citrussy hops. Smooth, soft, gentle palate with subtle fruitiness and a light citrus acidity with refreshing effect; in the middle a mellow, honeyish sweetishness appears, very light on the tongue, finally leading to a medium long, dry, somewhat oily hop bitterishness which stays a lot more subdued than I had expected considering the ’American’ influence. Still, delightful, friendly, elegant and highly quaffable, I could drink this any day especially in summer. Apparently only produced in very limited quantities.

Dark mild from a brewery in North Yorkshire. Light beige, thin, sticky head, dark wine red colour with ruby hue, clear. Aroma shows a certain amount of smokiness (smoked bacon) which I did not expect from a mild, apart from ’drop’, some caramel, bayleaf, grains, something peaty, raisins and a hint of coffee grounds. Dried fruits in the mouth, liquorice, caramelly malts, with the smokiness coming up towards the finish, paired with a light, refreshing tartness and leafy hop bitterness; smooth and somewhat powdery mouthfeel. Very drinkable and more characterful than expected from a mild and in that sense more ambitious than the more traditional examples of the style. Nice one, with thanks to Keith and Susan from the brewery for their generous offer to my friend Vincent, who was kind enough to share a few bottles.

18th September 2014
Craft 100 at Craft Clapham. Cask. Hazy pale gold beer, small white head. Light crispy palate. Light dry malts. Little sulphur note brings things down. Mellow dried fruits. Light dry finish. Passable.

Cask @ Three Pigeons, Halifax. Very dark with a thick off-white creamy head and a deep roasted malt aroma and taste.

28th April 2014
Almost clear gold beer, small white head. Palate is slightly smooth but turns minerally crisp. Smooth clean pale malts, slightly nutty. Touch of dry malt cream. Not sure where the US hops went, there is just a bare touch of citrus here. Pithy finish. Okay.

Cask @ Booth Wood Inn, Rishworth. Golden with a thick creamy head. Has light floral malts in aroma and taste and a fairly smooth texture.

Cask @ The Guildford Arms, Edinburgh [031113]
Caramel brown with a thin beige head. Nose of light bitter roast, some English twiggy hop, bit mineraly and slight hedgerow fruits. Taste of soft dark fruits, soft roasted malts, dark caramel, hedgerow fruits, that slight mineraly edge, soft bitter. Palate is fairly thin with a dark fruit soft roast finish. Didn’t get any vanilla in this at all. Average as a porter.