Wensleydale Lidstone's Rowley Mild
Wensleydale Brewery

May 2005: Cask conditioned at the 32nd Cambridge Beer Festival, as "Wensleydale Rowley Mild". Gravity dispense. Dark brown colour. Lovely aroma of dark fruits with slightly roasty notes. Flavour is moderately malty with a moderate fruity character - lacking in hops, but that’s the traditional mild for yer, mate. Not too much of a mouthfeel at 3.2% ABV, but decent enough.

A kind gift from fellow Yorkshireman BA RichLightweight, hand-carried all the way from Yorkshire. Bottle-conditioned in a 500ml brown bottle. BB 01/07, served cool in a straight imperial pint glass.

A: pours a dark caramely brown colour, with a beige souffle frothy head fast building up, then retaining the thickness for a good while, until settling to a 1cm foamy cap constantly on top; the carbonation is lively but not OTT. Looking stunning~~
S: fragrant hops and ideally sweetish dark malts intertwine beautifully--dark milk chocolates and toffee dominate the nose, skirted by orangey fruitiness of Goldings(?) and flowery scent of other hops, a mildly doughy souness of yeasts as well as a mildly sour edge of marinated berries, crushed sweetened nuts and sweet coffee... All in all the beer smells a bit like Porter as well, for its well-structured complexity is truly something.
T: quite effervesent and spritzy on the mouthfeel upfront... slowly my palate manages to pick up mixed elements of varieties of malts: bitter-sweet toffee-ish taste of crystal/Munich malts, mildly burned taste of roasted barley, biscuity flavour of pale malts, while the winey sourness as well as the tart edge of raw-ish malts lie low at the back... The finish comes moderately dry with a touch of licorice and healthy input of bittering hops, while the roastiness also provides good bitter aftertaste to balance the semi-rich malty foretaste.
M&D: the mouthfeel is indeed a bit too "exciting" upfront due to those lively spritzy bubbles... fortunately it softens pretty quickly, and, on top of a much thicker body than the low alc. strength (3.2%) might make one believe, makes it a "refreshing but deep" Dark Mild to savour (seriously, rarely have I bumped into a Mild of this body at such low strength). Great thanks to Rich for sharing this bottle with me. This is a good Mild, and I can't wait to sample the cask version which won itself "GBBF Champion Mild of Great Britain 2003"~~