Derail Ale
Box Steam Brewery

L- Dark amber, clear, pours with 2mm white head.
S- So light and fleeting I have no way of even trying to describe it.
T- A medium level of malts and then into a mild hoppy lick in the finish. It's trad and better than the 'absent smell' had suggested.
F- Pretty nice for a 5.2%. Nothing wrong or notably out of line to note. This would be eminently sessionable for people into trad IPA. I served this from the fridge, another time I'd serve it maybe 5C warmer - I say that as as it warms a touch the Feel AND Taste are both noticably opening up.
O- Nice and trad. I'd happily buy this again if it and I were regulars at a pub. Meanwhile this was bought by mail order from Best of British Beer, UK.
500ml bottle BB: May-2022

 

Very English, I would say. Low on hop punch or juiciness, instead has a different kind of fruitiness that the American ones. English hops feel different indeed, its bitterness is also dry? more raw? something like the English Bitters have. But the good thing is that there IS at least some sort of fruitiness, if not citrus but at least some fruits in there. Not as much as Fullers though.
Quite like the "good for one" category.

 

From Lidl. In Ikea's pint glass. Playing Avernum 2. Bitter and crushable. May not be the most flavorful brew but at least it has nearly nothing of the unpleasant veggie touch of other English IPAs

L:
-pours a clear amber with a medium to big,frothy,offwhite head
-low to medium carbonation visible
S:
-caramel,toffee,nutty,spicy,grassy,plum,orange
T:
-Follows the nose
-medium to high bitterniss for the style
F:
-medium carbonation
-light to medium body
O:
A really solid ESB.
This is available at LIDL for a ridiculously low price

Has a clear golden color with a solid, stable head.

This is pretty muted on the nose with no hops at all standing out. Plain nothing.

Has a light and refreshing mouthfeel with a borderline thinness.

Tastes way better than it smells, which doesn‘t mean too much. The hops are recognizable on the palate, by establishing a lime pulp bitterness, which gets handled by a way more pronounced cake maltiness. Turns lighter after the swallow with more malts defining the taste, underlined by some bitter lime zest.

Taste good, old school, little heavy on the malts. Nose, non exsistent.

A: Bronze, clear, not much of a head, what head there was, was tanned and didn’t hang around.

S: Didn’t have an overly pronounced aroma, but some earthy Fuggles Hop was detectable.

T: Tasted some earthy, malty, slightly sour fruits which gave way to a lingering wheaty bitter finish.

M: Medium body, moderate carbonation.

O: Very much an English IPA.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bottled and sadly not bottle conditioned because that would have made a great English Pale
that would make the decade worthwhile
Still gives a dementia bitter flavour

A beautiful sunny afternoon on Friday 7th September 2012 saw my father and I join in R.A.T.2012 (Rail Ale Trail part 2). Split between three bars along the Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury railway line: they had over 50 different beers to try: this was one of them.

Half-pint, gravity fed in the fest tent behind Codsall Railway Station.

I’ve struggled with a couple of beers from this brewery but thought I’d give them another try: I fancied an IPA and wasn’t disappointed. Looked good; it had a bright amber body with a fair sized head of frothy white bubbles.

The smell was very floral and grassy, glad to say I picked up no citrusy notes in the aromas or taste.

The taste was hop bitter, but with a balanced malt feel to take away the bite.

Medium body depth: with enough flavours to hide the 5.3% ABV nicely. Pleasant: without setting the world alight.

Coming in a 500ml brown bottle, not bottle-conditioned; BB 07/02/2012, served cool in a straight imperial pint glass. Notes: the back label describes this beer as “a wonderfully hoppy traditional India Pale Ale”.

A: pours a clear, deep golden hue, coming with moderate streams of tiny and medium-sized bubbles, while a white fluffy head settles fast to a thin sheet to last.
S: the nose is dominated by the floral+orangey hop-malt mixture with an edge as of oxidised pears plus yeastiness; a touch of sweet butter, bitter citrus peels, English pale malts, and melted caramel stay in the background, while a good swirl brings out more floral hints as indicated by the back label as floral hops. Neither balanced nor complex, but not unpleasant, either.
T: a mildly sweet foretaste of pale malts is underlined by a very slowly developing flow of orangey hop bitterness, making an significant impact on the second layer of the flavour structure and lingers really well; in fact, the first layer of flavour, or foretaste, is very understated indeed, making the discrepancy in taste at the two stages even more interesting. The finish is only mildly hoppy in flavour and floral in aroma, but all in all deeply bitter with a decent of tannins to entertain the taste buds.
M&D: the carbonation remains very very smooth and soothing throughout the drink, all the more so considering this is a non-bottle-conditioned beer, but the body somehow suffers being a slightly too light, and the flavour, or the lack of complexity, is salvaged by the consistent and slowly developing hop bitterness. Also, it is interesting to notice that the overall condition of this bottled version is highly reminiscent of a cask ale in fact, instead of an artificially-carbonated one – not a bad thing at all! Not a bad beer, but there’s still plenty of room for improvement, I’d say.