Stallion
Hambleton Ales

On cask at Bishops Arms Plaza.

Pours a clear amber with soft, fluffy head.

Smell is bready with notes of chestnuts, brown bread, tobacco and some dried fruit.

Taste is bready and hoppy with a moderate bitterness. Notes of brown bread, tibacco, chestnuts, rye and dried fruit.

Mouthfeel is medium, smooth and well carbonated.

Overall, a terrific, drinkable bitter.

Hand drawn pint in The Sportsman’s Arms pub, Wath, Yorkshire.
A smooth, dry and leafy Yorkshire bitter. Unfortunately, there’s a big aroma of malt vinegar with just a trace as well in the flavour. Barrel has gone off (not a lot).

 

Coming in a 500ml long-neck brown bottle, BBE 03/2007, Batch 1492, served cool in a straight imperial pint glass.

A: translucent dark amber to light russet-brown in colour; a nice-looking puffy off-white beer head sustains surprisingly well; moderate and constant carbonation.
S: rich and dense in maltiness with a sour-sweet edge of lightly-roasted nutty malts, smelling rather raw-ish and gristy; combined with a deeper layer of burned-caramely crystal malts, and a sour-ish citric fruitiness with an earthy hint. Firmly at the back is an assertive touch of yeasts. Rather refreshing and lively.
T: the initial mildly brown-sugary maltiness (not sweet) leads to mildly tannic tea-leafy bitterness, raw-ish and aromatic nuttiness, a mildly roasted dry-ish bitterness in the aftertaste, which slowly intensifies to render a medium-dry and clean finish.
M&D: light-ish in body, quite refreshing on the texture with very good support of gently-spritzy fizziness… overall this is a malt-dominated Bitter, balanced rather subtly with a mild entry of dried-leafy hops. Recommended.