Original Bitter
Greene King / Morland Brewery

£6 a pint on hand-pull at The Side-Quest, Little Shelford, Cambridgeshire. Went together very well with the monumental Sunday roast lunch. Trad style bitter with quite pronounced bitter/dry hopping.

 

 

 

Cask. Clear amber with a frothy head.
Toffee like aroma. Hops noticed but subdued.
A taste of sweet malt with a touch of marmalade. Butter fudge caramel with a light bitter completion.
Good cask conditioned feel.
Just like bitter used to taste. Hard to beat a well made traditional pale.

 

 

Handpump half-pint at the Audley in Mayfair.

A: Clear, bright amber body with a tight cap of white foam. Good retention, light lace. Pretty enough.

S: Banana! Tons of fruit, some acrid malt, and just lots of gross. I should have read the fine print on the cask badge: "From the brewers of Old Speckled Hen." This is going to suck.

T: Sweet caramel malt starts things off well enough, but quickly devolves into harsh mustiness, over-the-top fruit, and the most jarringly astringent finish I could imagine in a 4% Bitter. Pretty terrible.

M: Thin + pretty flat - even for a cask pour. Dead.

O: If you like rotten fruit and musty, astringent malt, then this is the ale for you. If you like good beer, look elsewhere.

Cheers!

Served with a nice light tan head that lasts quite a while and some lace. Color is a very clear copper amber. Aroma is malty and hoppy with a little caramel and toffee and whole wheat bread. Flavor's about the same/ basic British Bitter. Body is good but has a lot more carbonation than what I'd expect for cask. Nevertheless you could drink this on and on. Tasty. Nice finish.

Morland Original Bitter comes in a clear 500ml bottle, no BBD found, it must last forever!

Poured into a pint sleeve.

Good healthy looking copper/amber colour, clear with a few bubbles rising up to the white foaming head.

A sweet almost candy aroma hits your nose at first, it peters away to not much of anything, almost aroma-less towards the end.

Fairly bitter and refreshing taste, like a good English Bitter should taste. Hops and malted barley both evident, a good strong flavour when first tasted.

Although it has bite to it, there is a flaw in the beer. It doesn't have enough umph to stay flavoursome in the mouth, it fades away very quickly to a nothingness.

Better than I anticipated, and not bad really.

Very nice appearance to this one: mid amber colour with a creamy off-white head, leaving rings of lacing down the glass.

Aroma is malty, biscuity, very clean, somewhat citrussy and
buterrscotch-esque, with a red berry end.

Taste is as fantastic - biscuity, butterscotchy, grapefruits, lemons, spicy and a finish that is very bitter and hoppy spice.

The mouthfeel is smooth and creamy, and it drinks very well. It reminds me an awful lot of Speckled Hen, with its strong flavours and good finish. I loved this beer.