Abbot Ale
Greene King / Morland Brewery

This ale comes in a nice designed bottle, 500 ml with best before date.

The foam is rich and very white, but quite soft and disappears relatively fast. The colour is light copper with a shade of red.

The smell is a little disappointment; it is like average ale of this style but more delicate. It was hardly any scent at all, but there was a little touch of hops.

The taste… To be honest, I didn’t really like it. The first thing that hits the mouth is carbon dioxide. Lots of sharp carbon dioxide (perfect for a lager or pils, but not for ale) makes it hard to feel any other taste.

The taste developed in three stages: First, a quick rush of metallic tones. Then comes a fresh, sweet taste resembling of dark bread baked with treacle. Third, the carbon dioxide comes back, but this time together with a nice body of dry hopes.

Its dry, well-composed aftertaste is the best part of this beer. It might be a real gem on tap or as real ale, though.

Brewers notes: Notes: Hailed by the late beer writer Michael Jackson as ‘one of the great characters of the beer world’, Abbot Ale is brewed for quality of the highest order. Abbot is an irresistible ale with masses of fruit characters, a malty richness and superb hop balance. It is brewed longer to a unique recipe, which makes it the full-flavoured, smooth and mature beer it is today.

On cask at the The Imperial near the Trocadero in London

Clear copper liquid, no foam cAP

Aroma is malty , sweet

Taste is sweet, malty, almost tea like taste

Smooth beer, low carbonation

Good beer

From cask at Three Tuns in London. Much better than their other bitter on cask but not nearly the quality of Landlord. Great malt flavor and a touch of hops to make a proper bitter. Slightly sweet and so smooth.

 

 

 

 

Cask ale pulled into a shaker pint glass on a sunny June afternoon at The George in Southwark, London.

Appearance - Reddish copper color. Great clarity. A moderately thick head. Great stickage on the inside of the glass. A very handsome ale!

Nose - Sweet. A touch spicy. A slight whiff of Licorice. Nice!

Taste - Sweet. Malty. A touch of burnt caramel. Again, a bit of licorice. A slight hop zing on the tail end. Very tasty!

Mouth - Buttery. Smooth. Classy.

Full disclosure; the setting might have affected this review. The wife and I were on vacation and I was giddy with emotion. Regardless, this ale was just soooo good! We hit quite a few pubs on this trip (I'll be posting more reviews in "Places"). Many of the ales that I sampled were very good. There were also a couple disappointments. This ale was the best of our trip (just edging out the Doom Bar and the "Oh, Mister Porter").

 

From cask. Tasty brew!

I tasted this as a cask-conditioned real ale during a April 2022 business trip to London. It had an incredible appearance; light copper color with brilliant clarity and a great head. The flavors and aromas were good for a classic English ale, and it was one of the best cask ales I had on that trip. It is probably not fair to compare a cask-conditioned sample against the bottled versions most likely being rated on BA, which would explain why my scores are higher than average.

I was familiar with this beer in the 1990s, primarily from bottles when I lived near the brewery while on a military assignment in the UK. Back then it was one of my favorites. I can't help thinking that it is disappointingly missing some malt character and is a lower ABV than it used to be, but that is based on my memory, not research.

From June 10th at The Woodman. Excellent beer.

I tried a pint of this beer off the cask'er at the pub at the Shrewsbury Hotel. It poured a clear amber with cask white head that left a fine lace. The scent had subtle bitter hop notes. The taste was nicely balanced and easy to drink with sweet malt base and the typical english bitterness through the drink. The mouthfeel was medium in body but with cask condition "carbonation". Overall it was a good beer.

 

 

Look: Nice copperish/reddish color, looks almost like an Irish red. Nice head at first, but it dissipates quicker than I would like.

Smell: fresh cut grass with some malt and fruity notes

Taste: nice and malty (the way I like my ESBs to be honest)

Feel: Light and smooth

I'll be honest, I first had this beer four years ago and didn't really like it, but I think I might have had a bad or expired can. Recently decided to try it again after my local NLC liqort store bought it back, and my opinion on this beer has changed since I first had it. Really nice overall ESB. Not my favorite by no means (that would be the ESB from Propeller in Nova Scotia, Canada) but overall a nice English bitter. Easy drinking as well. Would certainly buy it again.

 

 

 

Look: Clear bright copper orange. Small 3/4 finger head. Head gives way quickly leaving some lacing.

Smell: Grassy, with a malty backbone.

Taste: Bright and malty. Hints of tea, green apples and biscuits. The caramel malts dominate.

Feel: Very bright with a light to medium body.

A decent afternoon sipper, but nothing I would go out of my way to have again. I would say this beer is unbalenced, with the sweet carmel malt taking center stage and not leaving room for much else. This earns a B-