Taylor's Tipple
Hambleton Ales

Brown 500ml bottle, best before the end of Oct 2010, drank mid Oct 2010. Poured into an 'Abbot Ale' badged tankard.

Clear and good looking amber body, an off white blanket of foam sat on top, which produced some heavy lacing as the beer sank.

Hop bitterness aroma, but not overstated, a malt presence balances out the hops, both in the smell and tastes.

As stated, a balanced brew: very drinkable and full of those 'good quality English Bitter' flavours. An almost rich and creamy depth to it, a winters night beer and one I'd have again and again.

Appearance: Light amber coloured body, with a off-white head, which shows good retention. Quite Lightly carbonated.

Aroma: The nose has lots of caramels and sweet malts, with a subtle classic fruity hoppiness that is common with English Bitters.

Taste: Lots of bready, and biscuit malts, with a light milk chocolate coming through. The finish delivers a good sustained bitterness that is blended with the soft sweet malts from the start.

Mouthfeel: The body is medium, with a touch of greasy heaviness on the finish.

Drinkability: The drinkability of this beer is superb, it's the sort of beer that goes down all too easily.

500 mL brown bottle poured into a pint glass.

A: pours a golden brown or darker amber, clear but cloudy (if that makes sense), awesome foamy mostly-white head on top, dissipates very slowly and plenty of lacing.

S: sweet, mildly fruity

T: sweet and fruity at first, but then a strong bitterness on the finish. A very interesting complexity. Some earthy tones, sweetness (mild, unrecognizable fruit), with a bitter bite at the end--a very unexpected flavor palate.

M&D: very nice--would definitely drink again and/or recommend to English bitter and/or pale ale drinkers.

Purchased at the Sainsbury's supermarket, coming in a 500ml long-neck brown bottle, not bottle-conditioned; Batch 002141, BB 04/2010, served cool in a straight imperial pint glass.

A: elegant reddish amber in colour, coming with very restrained carbonation and a creamy off-white head with very decent retention.
S: like most dark amber Best Bitter, the aroma is split 50-50 b/w caramel malts and traditional English floral (+lightly orangey-citric) hop aroma, coupled with some notes of marinated berries, buttery toffee, and light boiled red beans and yum (likely due to pasteurisation).
T: a lightly effervescent semi-sweet foretaste of pale+caramel malts is inextricably mixed with the residual taste of burned sugar (with a bitter edge), bitter-sweet black tea, and a stealthily intensifying stream of hop bitterness. The aftertaste yields a slightly rough/chewy bitter palate and a bit more citric aroma as witness to the hop impact, while malts also leave lingering berry-ish aroma like an autumnal Bitter often does.
M&D: the carbonation is not sharp at all, but on the palate it still retains a lightly effervescent mouthfeel; although this medium bodied fruity-malty Best Bitter is not terribly tasty, the late entry of bitter hops and its lingering mouthfeel do render a good drinkability, particularly if one has nothing but several bottles of this to quaff on a lonely evening.