Hop Twister
Salopian Brewing Company Ltd

500ml brown glass bottle.
L: Clear, pale gold colour with a few stray bubbles rising to a thin smear of white foam.
S: Drinking this cold. Getting just the faintest hint of citrus. Nothing else.
T: A blast of lemon zest and grapefruit balanced by sweet, rich, pale malt. Bitterness is low.
F: Medium body with an oily mouth-coating and a dry-ish finish.
O: Smooth & moreish. A zesty, thirst-slaking, English golden ale with strong influences from American pale ales and German lagers. Good summer beer. Bet this is even better on cask.

Cask pour at Crown Tavern in London

 

Tasted at the Jersey CAMARA beer festival. Pours a rich golden colour with a white foamy head. Aromas of grapefruit, lemon, mango & a slight floral hops. Tastes of hops, citrus, floral, peach, and some biscuits leading to malt overtones. Aftertaste is a dry bitterness with a hint of lemon & grapefruits. Overall a very good beer.

Pint at JDW Whitehall.

A: Golden, slightly hazy, one fat finger head, moderate retention, lots of lacing.

S: Cascade, citrus, mango.

T: Followed the nose, moderate bitterness which wasn’t overdone.

M: Minimal carbonation, slightly coarse edge from the bitterness, light texture.

O: Nice subtle, sessionable pint, no further comment required.

 

Salopian Hop Twister
On cask at Belfast Beer Fest, ‘14.
Pale blonde with film of white. 3.75
Lemon barley sweets and cracked wheat crackers on the nose with a slight lactic tang. 3.75
Croissant and melon up front, then floral, Sunny D, and lime zest hops. 3.75
Waxy finish and lean linger, with that soapy/milky British thing.
Round, oily, almost medium, smooth. 4

Even and easy, with a hints of orange. Has an edge that’s good for the strength. I’ve seen better, but only at a festival like this. 4

15th September 2012: hand-pulled pint in ‘The White Lion’, Wellington, Shropshire.

Another golden ale with a citrusy hop front (the UK is awash with them this summer). The 4.5% ABV gives this one a bit more ‘umph’ than most and although I’m fed up with this style of beer in general I quite enjoyed this one.

Crisp, sharp and refreshing: with those citrus hops being prominent throughout, very little malt influence to be found in this dry finishing ale.

 

Not sure why this is listed as retired. Had this on cask at the JD Wetherspoon Pub in London-Stansted airport. Clear golden yellow pour with half finger head, good retention, and great lacing. Big fresh picked hops dominate the nose with a subtle hint of lemon. The taste is equally dominated by an incredible flavor of fresh picked hops. I would not have been surprised to see some hops floating in my beer it was that intense. For being so big on the hoppiness, this beer is perfectly balanced. Solid sweet malt backbone nicely complemented by the bitterness of the hops. Slightly chewy but really smooth, dry finish. That coupled with the fact that it was a cask ale made it scary drinkable. This was a hugely surprising beer that I will definitely seek out next time I'm in the UK.

Transcribed from Notes of 30/10/2006, this was the 11th beer tasted at the Capitol, a JDW pub in Forest Hill, SE London, during the chain’s Full Moon Beer Festival.

A: dark straw in colour with some chill haze; a creamy white froth comes tight and lasts well, on top of rather low carbonation.
S: fresh, oily & fruity hops abound, like Styrian Goldings plus grassy Saaz and a floral scented hoppiness underneath; pleasant, predominantly hoppy overall.
T: the tremendous influence from Saaz aroma and its bitter contents underlines a yeasty touch as of Belgian Pale Ale, leading towards dry-ish & zesty lemony and juicy, lychee-blossom-like flowery flavour, on top of a profound bedrock of bitter-sweet biscuity pale malts... 3D-structured in the aftertaste, with plenty more grassy Saaz and zesty bitter First Gold to intertwine nicely to entertain the tastebuds.
M&D: softly-fizzy, light-bodied, this hoppy blond bitter has a sound profile full of light malts and exciting hops - a truly quaffable ale that I like!