Old Brewery Bitter
Samuel Smith Old Brewery (Tadcaster)

Drawn from the cask at Captain Kidd, a Sam Smith pub, on the banks of the Thames in Wapping (an early dockyard, like 18th Century.) The pub is very authentic and old school also in the Sam Smith tradition, lots of old wood and no Wi-Fi. I had a sandwich there for lunch, proceeded by this half-pint of bitter. And great views of the river traffic !

Old Brewery Bitter Looks like one, a tight foam and light amber bod. I'm only Smelling sweet malt, an average bitter in my rating that characteristic. But hops enter in mid-palate to balance and they linger moderately, but only for flavour and not dominance. Medium-mouthed in a soft style.

I give Sam Smith's very good Overall Hugs for being one of the bigger hospitality companies for keeping alive the tradition of brewing, food and even rooms at the inn. They seem to be a franchise operation from their website; making it an interesting conservation strategy.

 

Handpulled cask conditioned pint in the Malt Shovels in Altrincham to reveal a clear straw body
Pours a straw coloured body with thick tight white head
Aroma is barley sugars
Flavour is butterscotch leading to damp grass and a bitter finish

On cask at The Captain Kidd pub in Wapping, London.
L: Clear amber with one finger of cream head that reduces to a cap with sheets of lacing.
S: Clean & malty.
T: Sweet & biscuity.
F: Medium body, smooth mouthfeel and a lightly bitter finish.
O: Traditional Yorkshire bitter.

UPDATED review (January 2026): Cask at the Princess Louise in London. Even better than I remember. Like really one of the best bitters I've had this trip. I had it a couple years ago at a pub that gets much less traffic and gave it straight 4s, but this pub in London clearly goes through quite a lot of bitter and I think the freshness really made the difference. Raising my score. It's not quite as flavorful as say, Harvey's Sussex Best, but it's so smooth and beautiful in its own way. Controversially, this place used a sparkler (which I suppose is accurate for a bitter from Yorkshire), but I actually think I might like it this way... maybe I am team sparkler after all.

Original review (August 2024): On cask at The Crystal Palace in York. I rate this 4s across the board. I get the impression it was far from the most popular choice at this particular pub (seemed like most were drinking the Taddy Lager) so perhaps this wasn't quite as fresh as it was for some of the people here rating 5/5, but it was still very solid and enjoyable. I will say that it was served quite a bit warmer than every other pint I had in England, it was noticeably about room temperature, but I'm not sure if that means anything as far as conditioning goes. It was a nice looking pint, an amber-brown hue, and small creamy head. The smell was a bit oaky and musty, also very nice. The flavor was somewhat sweet and bready, also with that woody-mustiness, very nice. Super smooth feel as with all other cask ales I tried. I will say that it compares favorably to other bitters I had in England, and I would be happy to try this again one day.

Before Landlord's southward expansion, Sam Smith's Old Brewery Bitter was potentially the best beer widely available in London - and almost never served even passably well, which is one of life's greatest disappointments. Brewed in stone squares and served out of a wooden barrel, it's almost the last of its kind in the modern world - no thanks to Samuel Smith's, who put the keg version in most of their pubs.

To be fair to them, it's the right move - unless the barrel's just been changed and the pump sees enough throughput to keep the lines clean, the beer ends up tasting of nothing but vinegar. Try it at the Cheshire Cheese for this experience: I had my very first pint of beer there when it was still £2.20, and since about 2018 I haven't had a pint there that didn't taste of vinegar. Either they're not flushing the lines properly, or they're conditioning it wrong, or it's just not travelling well in the wooden casks - whatever it is, it's uniformly bad.

Last Friday at the Angel, by St Giles in the Fields, though, I finally remembered why the beer that got me into beer was my favourite for so long.

Straight poured with a northern sparkler, it settled to a pure copper colour, with a tight, retentive ivory head. On the nose, an oaky, smoky must - not particularly strong. The taste is subtle too: apple, biscuity malt and a note of honey. The head keeps the mouthfeel creamy without stickiness, like mother's milk. More biscuit and herbs in the finish, with a lingering bittersweet tail.

And I'm sorry to say that odds are you'll not get this taste when you try it - it really is that variable in quality. But perhaps that elusiveness is what makes it, when it reaches its zenith, the only truly perfect pint.

 

On cask @ Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese in London, England.

Notes from May 2023.

Enjoyed downstairs in the Cellar Bar at Cheshire Cheese with a ploughman's board for lunch. This was the first beer my friend Jesse and I had on our trip to London and it very well may have been the best. Looking back on it, it is simply one of the best beers I have ever had.

Deep amber in color with a thick, creamy, off-white head. Great retention and tons of lacing left behind all around the glass on the way down. Otherworldly aroma of toffee, nuts, orange marmalade.

The beer also had an amazing earthy/musty quality to it, almost as if the cellar bar where the beer was being pulled from gave it a sense of terroir. The complexity in the aroma and flavor was stunning. Slightly sweet malt with earthy hops. Incredible balance, complexity and drinkability.

I could have spent hours drinking one after another while hanging with my best friend. A beer that could not be improved on in a setting to match. That is what I came for.

"Structure, balance, elegance, and deliciousness. That's what I want, each and every time." - Garrett Oliver

 

 

Had on cask. Lighter brown pour with a kahki head, spotted lacing. Faint stilton cheese underneath toffee malt, stone fruit and brown bread, odd but pleasant. Taste has great toffee malt, herbal hops, apricot, brown bread, and a hint of wood root. Feel is mark by how light and pleasant it is, smooth and warm too. The wife loved it

My absolute favorite cask ale in the UK!

Cask conditioned ("drawn from an oak cask") at The Golden Ball, Scarborough (a Samuel Smith’s pub). Deep golden colour, creamy head. Pleasant aroma of fruity hops. Tolerable hops in the flavour - smooth and easy drinking. Okay.

 

 

a classic and wonderful example of the style, so cool to drink this at one of their pubs in london, felt like a real special experience and interaction with english brewing history. this has a beautiful light amber color to it with immaculate clarity and a rich creamy white head. im waxing nostalgic here, but this is exactly what i want a beer like this to taste like, malty and lightly metallic, well aged it seems, mature in a cool way for an ale, and with all the english malt you could really pack into a beer this light in alcohol, and not overly sweet to drink, its a classic old world session beer, the sam smith yeast is obvious in it, and its balanced in a wonderful way, with just a little bit of english bittering hops to close it out. hearty and satisfying for its mild strength, and a cool beer for a chilly rainy windy day, of which there are apparently a lot of in london. its smooth in feel, has a honey and nutty character to the grain, bready and earthy, simple but not one dimensional, i love that. soft carbonation is all it needs, and this ends up being a real enjoyable and classic english bitter, a model for others to follow.

 

pint on cask at Earl of Lonsdale, London, on Tuesday, April 17, 2018

L: copper brown, clear as water, little bitty cap for a head, no major lacing/sticking

S: malty fruity ... loads of bread, bread dough, buttery bread ... apricot ... so fruity then sweeter as it warms, almost cherry cheesecake then a super sweet cherry pie

T: a bit stale, light bread malt, pinch of peach and firm layer of dirt-hop bitterness that's so far from medicinal it's not even funny, just that perfect bit of bitter that's tantalizingly tasty

F: unbelievable ... my first cask ale in England and it's everything it's reported to be and more; so little carbonation yet it bites and tickles so much, just that little prickle that eases each swallow down the gullet

O: for a first cask ale/real ale experience, fantastic! I could drink this everyday and need nothing more; an ultimate session beer