India Pale Ale (2012- )
Shepherd Neame Ltd

Deep amber brown colour with a creamy head.
Aroma: citrus, caramel, caramelised orange peel, some toffee, hint of vanilla.
Taste: caramel, bitter orange peel, some hops, rye. Quite mild bitterness with a sweet finish. Very sweet for an IPA.

Pours a clear amber with fine head.

Smell is malty with some nice fruity hints. Notes of toast, chestnuts, citrus, toffee and rye bread.

Taste is rich and malty with a solid bitterness. Notes of toffee, rye bread, citrus and chestnuts with a fruity finish.

Mouthfeel is medium, smooth, sticky and well carbonated.

Overall, a terrific English IPA, combining malt and hops very well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amber body and slightly tan head. Smell of treacle and burnt sugar. Taste is strong burned malts and syrup. Feel lasts too long, a certain stale lemony bitterness and sticky syrupy sweetness with a heavy dose of ethanol. Not a bad brew but not to my tastes. Tough one to drink.

 

 

L:
-pours a clear amber with a small-to-medium,foamy,off-white head
-low-to-medium carbonation visible
S:
-caramel,orange zest,earthy,spicy,dusty,nutty
T:
-caramel,orange zest,spicy,herbal
-medium-to-high bitterniss
F:
-low-to-medium carbonation
-light-to-medium Body
O:
Misses the heavy Toffee Base of many English Ales, but this is still a good,earthy English IPA

 

 

 

 

Not quite the English IPA style, it's more of a bitter. A bit too much treacle on the tongue for me and a little sticky on the lips. great bitter taste but lacking the agility of my favourite bitters such as XX by De Ranke.

Pours a clear, deep amber coloration with a ruby tint and a medium, frothy head. Smells of bready, grainy, slightly caramelly malt and grassy, herbal, slightly resinous hops. Taste follows the nose, with a good balance of bready, grainy, slightly caramelly malt and grassy, herbal and slightly resinous hops, with just a hint of orange peel and pine coming through as well. Finishes with a medium bitterness and some bready, grainy malt and herbal, resinous hops lingering in the aftertaste. Smooth mouthfeel with a medium body and carbonation.

I think this makes for a pretty nice English IPA with a good balance of malt and hops. While the hops are a little bit in the background here, with the grainy, sweet'ish malts setting the tone, there are definitely some good bitter, herbal and slightly resinous notes to this, with just a hint of citrus as well, balancing out those malts nicely. While it may not be bursting with hop aromatics, an English IPA isn't really supposed to be. It's more about the balance, which works out very well here. Overall, this makes for an enjoyable example of the style that is well-balanced and goes down easy.

Sample from bottle at Copenhagen Beer Festival 2013, served a bit too cold. Deep golden to brown colour, moderate white head. Moderate aroma of "dusty" hops, a hint of toffee in the background. The medium dry flavour has a distinct and sharp hoppy bitterness throughout, but I get little hop flavour besides the bitterness. Not that great, really.