Babylon Banks
Fenland Brewery Limited

Bottle-conditioned, 500ml brown glass bottle. BB May 06 (oops!), served cool in a straight imperial-pint glass.

A: pours a slightly cloudy, reddish brown colour; the beer head comes tightly-frothy and finely-effervescent, building up to a huge souffle head then very slowly breaks down, leaving cottony tight lacing on the walls of the glass... fine and constant carbonation underneath. Looking great!
S: an assertive flow of ashy, piney, and fruit-estery note comes from the beer froth, hand in hand with a mildly nuttiness and brown-sugary hint of malts, and plenty of woody and slightly sharply floral hops; very intense and perfumy yeasty, malt-dominated aroma.
T: a mouthful of smoked maltiness and roasted nuttiness leads on the palate, with an ashtray-like smoky edge, backed by an intensifying woody bitterness and a lingering, vertical flavour of chewy, tea-leafy hops; turning gradually to a drier mouthfeel at the deep end of the tongue, full of bitter hops lingering in the mouth...
M&D: softly-carbonated and med.-plus bodied, this full-flavoured malty beer gives a surprisingly pleasant touch of smokiness (though I'm not sure if smoked malts are used at all in this beer) and a 3D structured hoppyness prolonging the pleasure. Utterly drinkable bitter, and very successful bottle-conditioning condition it has shown!