Gardeners Tipple
Hog's Back Brewery

Look: A rich bronze amber ale.
Smell: No particular strong smell.
Taste: Rich taste, malty, hoppy, pleasant.
Feel: Rich and malty.
Overall: An acceptable drinkable ale.

Bottle picked up when I happened to pass within a 15 minute detour of the brewery.
Pours a ruby brown with smallish off white head. Pretty, but certainly filtered and head didn't last too long. Only a tiny bit of lacing. Nose is very pleasant with floral hops and malty tones. Flavor starts off with a nice sweet-bitter feel on the front of the tongue, but turns to off flavors after a moment further back on the tongue. Really a shame. Overall, an okay beer that started off better than it finished.

 

 

 

500ml bottle: BBD Mar 2013, poured into a UK pint sleeve at home on 2 Apr 2013, so two days out of date!

Lovely looking beer for 30 seconds: bright amber/reddy brown/light mahogany body with a good but fast fading head. It then doesn't look so great, just a collar and wisp sits on the fine body.

Fruity malt loaf sort of aroma with a taste to match: there is a drying bitterness towards the end of each sip but this is mostly a malt based fairly sweet beer and to my liking.

The body is almost rich in its depth and for a 4%ABV beer is impressive, a well made beer for sure.

Poured from a 500ml bottle into a pint glass.

Pours a golden brown colour with a short lived head and no lacing.

Smells dark sweet and rich - malty.

Tastes malty but refreshing and well balanced.

Overall a decent refreshing beer, not much to look at but still pretty good.

500 mL brown bottle poured into a pint glass/tumbler.

A: light brown in colour with tiny hints of red; cloudy yet transparent in clarity; minimal head and lacing; no fizz

S: rich and sweet smelling

T: rich flavour with hints of molasses, mild bitterness and moving towards the flavour of a brown ale--very satisfying!

M: no carbonation at all, very smooth, rich and satisfying without being too heavy

O: excellent! Would love to have another.

Coming in a 500ml brown bottle, “brewery-conditioned” (meaning filtered and possibly pasteurised as well?); BB 02/2012, served cool in a straight imperial pint glass.

A: pours a light chestnut brown hue, coming with fine carbonation and a thin, light beige foamy head.
S: lightly citrusy, raisiny and even date-ish on top of richer notes of nutty, biscuity and toffee-ish malts, underlined by an assertive edge of salted-sour prune-ish-ness, possibly a by-product of yeastiness.
T: the flavour is assertively malty (but not heavy or sweet) as well as lightly sour-fruity from the start, laced with random sweet herbs, sour-ish prunes (as on the nose), and a lightly earthy touch. A spicy+herbal bitterness quietly develops in the aftertaste, where a little boiled-yum-like sweetness lingers along with residual notes of caramel.
M&D: mildly carbonated, light-medium bodied, easy-drinking all in all; IMO, this is a light-flavoured malty Bitter in need of a better balance and a more distinct flavour profile.