jamie goode's wine blog: Beeeer!

Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Beeeer!

I'm a wine writer, not a beer writer, but I do enjoy beer. And I'm hoping that some of my wine assessment skills (no laughing at the back) are, to a degree, transferable to the realm of ale.

Anyway, here are some beers I've recently tried, with my assessments. Scores are on the Goode 10-point beer scale, with half marks allowed.

Marston’s Pedigree
5% alcohol. Orange brown colour. Fresh, bitter, a bit malty with a nice tangy yet rich savoury personality. Classic full-flavoured style. 7

Marston’s Burton Bitter
3.8% alcohol. Light and fragrant with some toffee richness and subtle bitter notes. Nicely warm. 6

Young’s Kew Gold Bottled Conditioned Ale
4.8%. Hops grown at RBG Kew. Yellow/gold colour. Beautifully hoppy, floral nose leads to a palate with complex, tangy, fresh bitter lemon and herb notes. Just a hint of sweet malt, too. 8

Wells Bombardier Burning Gold
4.7% alcohol. Golden colour. There’s some tangy bitterness here, but also malty, slightly syrupy sweetness. This creates a balanced, rounded, rather rich textured ale with some complexity. Really nicely poised, combining freshness and richness. 7.5

Old Speckled Hen
5.2% alcohol. Orange brown. A really rich style with sweet nutty toffee and caramel notes, smooth texture and lovely malty depth. It lacks any bitterness. In-yer-face. 8

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5 Comments:

At 9:04 AM, Anonymous Keith Prothero said...

The higher the alcohol the better the beer Jamie?
This is the reason I love Belgian beer so much-------well perhaps not the reason but certainly lovely flavoursome beer and high alcohol seem to go hand in hand.

 
At 1:16 PM, Blogger Justin Roberts said...

No Adnams?

Bah humbug!

 
At 6:19 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

So are those really low scores - or out of 10? ;-) Why not use the 100pt scale?

 
At 3:47 AM, Anonymous Rosehill Wine Racks said...

My girlfriend's father recently had me try a bottle of "Old Speckled Hen". While I'm not a beer drinker, it was a refreshing break from the standard tapwater often peddled as beer. It had FLAVOR. Thanks for this review - I'll have to try the others!

 
At 9:05 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm the opposite of Keith. The beers I like are usually light and fresh (while also remaining relatively flavoursome).

 

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