Scotney Pale Ale
Westerham Brewery Company Ltd

 

Slightly hazy amber orange color with practically no head.
Unexpected for an English Pale Ale, a nice fresh citric aroma, with notes of honey, sweet malt and English fruity and earthy hops. Half way towards an APA.
Fruity flavor with notes of mild grapefruit, English hops, biscuit malt, and hints of grass and earth. Dry, fruity, mildly acid and a long pleasant bitter aftertaste.
Light body with low carbonation.
This is could be the best English Pale Ale I’ve had so far, if it just had some more body to it. Maybe this is due to the reduced gluten. Just loved its consistent and constant fresh hop presence without overpowering it. Also it is very sessionable.

This beer is named as such because it uses the hops grown in the Little Scotney Farm owned by the National Trust. Besides the Wye Target hops, the other ingredients include Maris Otter malts, amber malts, torrified wheat and Westerham's yeast. 500ml brown bottle packaging, filtered and pasteurised; BB 01/2009, served cool in a straight imperial pint glass.

A: pours a clear golden hue with mild carbonation, topped with a thin fluffy white head.
S: hops are everywhere on the nose, esp. an orangey-citric aroma almost like Goldings, and some scattered grassy notes; also at play is an un-mistakable whiff of candy-ish sweetness from amber malts, mixed with a rather focused touch of cherry/berry syrup. Quite nice, not complex.
T: bitter-sweet malts and a vague citric tart-sweetness upfront lead towards a deepening aftertaste, featuring lingering biscuity maltiness and a simultaneously intensifying flat hop bitterness with a grassy touch, making a deep impact down the wings of the tongue.
M&D: softly effervescent, light-bodied, refreshing and drinkable; hops used are of good quality in the delicate balance with biscuity malts. A decent pale bitter this is, with an impressive depth of bitterness, hops, and chewy mouthfeel in the end. It could've been better if bottle-conditioned~~