Stairway to Heaven
Burton Bridge Brewery

L- The cap popped off way 'too easily', without bending it at all, and I immediately wondered if the bottle had been properly sealed. The beer poured with zero bubbles until I raised the pour-height which produced a small amount of white patchy head. The beer is slightly hazy and there is almost no rising carbonation. [At this point I still don't know if it's drinkable].
S- It's mild, I just get some grain.
T- Grainy, quite deeply roasty and into quite a pronounced trad-style dry hoppy finish.
F- Intentionally or not this is a very very low carbonation beer. The hoppy-dry finish is really pretty intense so that is keeping my palate interested and distracted, ie I can't conclude what the CO2 in the mouth is like, beyond subtle.
O- I suspect the cap wasn't sufficiently crimped into place, but fortunately did not dislodge in-transit to my home. In this situation it is really difficult to know how to rate a beer as you don't know if maybe it's meant to be like that... The CO2 is strikingly low, though to be clear it isn't fully flat tasting, and I suspect that it not as intended. Despite that it is proving drinkable though higher CO2 would clearly have added to it. This English IPA is in the trad-style of IPAs that I used to encounter in my pubbing youth ['80s], ie no modern tropical fruit notes to be found anywhere - thankfully.
p.s. The 500ml bottle carries an unsually attractive lable, a stylised stained-glass window featuring a pint glass of beer with angelic wings and a halo.
Bought from BeersOfEurope/UK for home delivery £2.79 BBE: March-2021