Gale's Summer Breeze
George Gale & Company Ltd

A 500ml bottle with a BB of Dec 2011. Described on the label as a summer ale containing barley, wheat and hopped with Saaz.

Poured into a Guinness pint glass. A clear light golden colour with good carbonation. Yields a small head of white foam that dissipates after a minute or so. Aroma is pretty weak - some noble hop notes and a hint of grain, underpinned by a faint whiff of diacetyl.

Tastes of light, watery malt with a faint bitterness. Notes of stewed noble hops accompanied by a harsh solventy flavour in the background. Mouthfeel is crisp and tingly, with a hoppy spiciness on the palate. Slightly astringent. Aftertaste of stale stewed hop bitterness.

An exceptionally mediocre beer. Flavour and aroma have taken a leave of absence, with nothing standing in. The best feature is the mouthfeel, with a spiciness on the tongue that you might get from a quality pilsner. In summary - avoid.

This beer was brewed again for the 2011 Sainsbury's beer comp (it didn't win): brown 500ml bottle, best before 30 Dec 2011.

Poured into a UK pint sleeve. Lager looking golden body with very little head. The bottle label asked for the beer to be served chilled, unusual for a British ale, I chilled it as requested.

Saaz hops dominated the smell, some cereal odours too (barley and wheat used in the brew).

The taste had a sharp hop bitterness with no malt content showing throughout the pint in smell or flavour.

A true summery beer, not really my sort, but OK if you like light bodied ales that lean more towards hops than malts.

Revisiting this beer, which was purchased at just 50p at Waitrose. BB 29/02/2008, served cool in a straight imperial pint glass.

A: bright dark straw in colour; a nice foamy white head sits on top of moderate carbonation.
S: rather dusty upfront, backed by plenty of lightly stinky grassy hops (yeah Saaz does ring a bell) and sweet lemony fruitiness; as the foam retreats, a more intense layer of sweet corn-starch, wheatiness and maltiness surfaces and takes over the aroma. Just like my last encounter, the overall sweetness spoils the balance on the nose.
T: the lightly grassy-hoppy and citric foretaste with a faint edge of soda as well as boiled-vegie-sweetness (byproduct of pasteurisation) slowly gives way to a soothing flow of biscuity malts that dominates the mid-taste, before reaching a clean and dryish, med-bitter finish with random hoppiness to boot.
M&D: feather light in body, lightly fizzy & refreshing, it somehow drinks better than the last bottle which is from the same batch as this one. Yet, judging it in the new category of Blond Ale, this ale still shows a profile too mild to be impressive or more-ish.