Glott's Hop
Distant Hills

A bottle-conditioned beer purchased at the fantastic Archer Road Beer Shop in Sheffield, it's brewed with halcyon malt and Pioneer hops (accroding to the brewery's website). It was also Runner-up in the Strong Bitter category, Huddersfield Oktoberfest 2005. BB Jan. 08, served cool in a straight imperial pint glass.

A: even with a careful pour, the unsettled yeast sediments still manage to storm my glass, causing a horribly cloudy, even dirty, dark yellowish body with millions of cottony bits floating in there... the white fluffy head settles slowly to a thin blanket on top of rather sporadic, mild carbonation.
S: due to the messy yeastiness, the aroma comes rather astringent with all the usual suspects that a disturbed bottle-conditioned British micro-brew can show: sharply acidic pineapples, mustiness, and a touch of damp sprigs; yet, behind the yeasty facade, there hides a more delicate aroma mixed of citric-zesty hops, lychee-shells, and a wave of mildly sweet raw-ish grainy malts. Obviously, despite the yeasty condition, Pioneer hops do not go unnoiced here.
T: the flavour is lightly acidic-sweet upfront, with plenty of sour edge as in semi-expired orange/lime juice-drink to boot - not quite pleasant to be honest... Yet the tongue-plucking powdery-bitter (as of crushed lychee seeds) and citric-zesty aftertaste soon takes over, lending a tremendous length and depth to the overall body. The pale-coloured malts keep a very low profile throughout, providing just enough sweetness of mild biscuit-iness from the back to underline the highly bitter hops.
M&D: the texture is also "tired" on the palate, yet a lease of soft fizziness still manages to get through to echo the refreshing flavour profile. Overall, I think this ale on cask can be just as phenomenal as their "Wren's Nest", with all the pleasant and complex hop elements. But the brewery needs to make much more efforts to put right their bottle-conditioning quality, apparently.