Wapping Baltic Gold
Wapping Beers Ltd.

Purchased at the Baltic Fleet brewpub in Liverpool, this ale is brewed on the premise. Bottle-conditioned, coming in a 500ml brown glass bottle; BB Sept 08, served cool in a straight imperial pint glass.

A: golden in colour with great clarity, coming with restrained carbonation and a thin white fluffy head retreating fast.
S: the aroma is mainly citric, featuring citrus peels, lemon grass, with a milder hint of gristy pale malts in the background. On top of these, the hay-ish stinky edge of dried leafy hops (a bit like Challenger hops to me) is prevalent, making the hoppiness "wonderfully stinky" on the nose...
T: a lively and a bit astringent taste of leafy citric hops makes the landing, so vivid that it's almost like the smell straight from the hop sacks; letting my imagination goes a bit wild, a stinky and wet note as of a "monkey's section" in a zoo (with plenty of wet and crushed peanut shells on the ground!!) also springs to mind, while a mildly biscuity and gristy pale malt presence does not go unnoticed. A dry, chewy, bitter aftertaste full of crushed citrus seeds and lime oil lingers in the end.
M&D: crisp clean, light-bodied, with mild but sound carbonation just like a fresh cask ale... there's no doubt about the bottle-conditioning quality of this ale, as evinced by its Bronze medal in the Bottle-Conditioned Ale Category at the GBBF 2007. Having said that, the overall flavour is slightly harsh to make it a magnificent bitter, maybe the bold hop performance comes at the expense of balance? Very drinkable as a session ale, though.