Obviously, sampling ales needs some sort of benchmark on which to base your comparison, so the 'unlucky' beer you drink first becomes that baseline mark. I started with the weakest first, it being unfair to drink weaker ales following stronger, more full bodied ales...
On the first day, I only drank pale and medium coloured bitters, leaving the dark beers, the porters and stouts, plus the ciders, 'til the following day, and the baseline was set by Redwillow Headless (3.9%), which I have had before, a bitter dry bitter with fruit and malt in the flavours, not a bad start. Then, another ale I think I've had before, Saltaire Blonde (4%), which uses Czech and German hops, another pale beer in which I detected a hint of wheat, if they don't use wheat malt in this, then the hops confused me! Again, not bad at all, and very different. The third was the only local ale of the festival, incredibly, Dark Star Seville (4%), which, I was assured, by the locals, ain't as good as it used to be (I still have my theory about our tastes changing, remember). Anyway, yep, a fruit flavoured beer, though very subtle, a deep golden bitter, shading it as the best ale so far...
My 4th ale was, and I assure you I wasn't drinking pints of everything, Hopstar Lush (4%) a slightly darker coloured bitter flavoured with Amarillo hops, not bad. The next two were heading upwards from 4%, ie Big Hand First Hand (4.2%), paler, with a biscuit flavour, dry and bitter, and Dancing Duck 22 (4.2%), a slightly darker bitter. Both were very drinkable, but not up to the level of the local ale, Dark Star Seville, which still had the edge for me.
My 4th ale was, and I assure you I wasn't drinking pints of everything, Hopstar Lush (4%) a slightly darker coloured bitter flavoured with Amarillo hops, not bad. The next two were heading upwards from 4%, ie Big Hand First Hand (4.2%), paler, with a biscuit flavour, dry and bitter, and Dancing Duck 22 (4.2%), a slightly darker bitter. Both were very drinkable, but not up to the level of the local ale, Dark Star Seville, which still had the edge for me.
So, we were now heading towards the stronger ales, where you would expect more flavours, but the next choice disappointed me, especially after everyone else had said how good it is, but it just wasn't to my personal taste, and became my least favourite ale of the festival. This was Hand Drawn Monkey What Would Jephers Do? (4.5%), others loved it, but not for me. The next bitter was much more to my taste, Heavy Industry 77 (4.9%), 2 ales with numbers as names, great for bingo callers, though this was much more interesting to me. Described as a "big amber IPA", which gives it a job to follow up, but it did, plenty of body and a nice dry and bitter finish, it did the job for me, cheers, so now became the leader!
But 2 ales were now coming up on the blind side, both pale and hoppy bitters, but very different! Derventio Cleopatra (5%) was, quite frankly, full of apricots, both in aroma (and the aroma could be detected from a distance!) and in taste. The tasting notes mentioned other fruit, but I only got the apricot, but very refreshing and very nice. The final ale of the session, 5 Towns Niamh's Nemesis (5.7%), did win the day, though, a great dry pale bitter with grapefruit in the aroma and taste, I loved it!
Cheers for now, because, much more to come!
But 2 ales were now coming up on the blind side, both pale and hoppy bitters, but very different! Derventio Cleopatra (5%) was, quite frankly, full of apricots, both in aroma (and the aroma could be detected from a distance!) and in taste. The tasting notes mentioned other fruit, but I only got the apricot, but very refreshing and very nice. The final ale of the session, 5 Towns Niamh's Nemesis (5.7%), did win the day, though, a great dry pale bitter with grapefruit in the aroma and taste, I loved it!
Cheers for now, because, much more to come!
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