Jolly Ploughman
Highwood Brewery Ltd.

Brown 500ml bottle, best before 28 Dec 2010, drank 16 May 2010, poured into two Palm (Belgian) glasses.

Bright, clear, dark amber body with a big bubbled tan head on top.

Malts dominate the smell, with hints of dark chocolate notes as it warms.

Dry, very dry for a Brown Ale, ideal with cheese I'd imagine (think Ploughmans Lunch). There is a hop bitterness that forces its way through the malts, giving the beer a well rounded feel. The chocolate from the aroma also appears latterly in the taste.

I like beers from this brewery, this one doesn't stand out, but is well worth trying if you ever see it.

Appearance: coppery brown, good clarity, thinnish layer of frothy light tan foam that slowly compacts to a thin cap

Aroma: malty-nutty brown bread, dates, herbal hops

Flavor: dryish malt backbone with a rye-crisp quality; grassy hop flavor with an early, raspy bitterness; finishes dry, leaving a vegetal, bitter aftertaste

Mouthfeel: medium body, fine carbonation, slightly astringent

Other comments: Not very balanced. The bitterness is a bit sharp at first. You really need to nibble some pretzels or peanuts to level things out a bit.

BB date: May 06. Got this bottle along with several other interesting brews from British microbreweries at ASDA supermarket, part of American Walmart now. I think ASDA deserves some applauses for doing its job well on beer-purchasing~~

A: light reddish brown colour, poured with an effervescent, thick and frothy off-white hued beer head with very good retention. constant flow of extremely tiny bubbles at work~~ very decent looking indeed.
S: biscuity malt and nuttiness are mixed so well upfront... decorated with a touch of semi-sweet cocoa powder and burned brown sugar; a deep-running and equally pronounced aroma of traditional English floral hoppyness (like Goldings) plays the second fiddle, and backed by more fruitiness (like sweet red apple) and toffeeish+treacle note--somehow it reminds me of Old Hooky ale~~
T: mouthful of roasted nutty flavour of dark, roasted/smoked maltiness upfront, the texture is really juicy and chewy, reminiscent of some sweetened mashed red beans and slightly strongly-scented roasted nuts; a brown-sugary touch at presence at the back of the palate along with a lingering dryish smokiness, but not too sweet nor strong, backed by a semi-dry, floral hoppy flavour in the aftertaste.
M&D: quite refreshing on the palate, though the mouthfeel goes rather thin after half way through tasting~~ overall this is a medium-bodied, malty ale. Not sure if it does fit in with the “Brown Ale” category, as it tastes to me like somewhere in b/w ESB, winter warmer, and brown, nutty ale. Anyway, this is a delicious beer for sure and worth trying!

i tend to stay more with the classic english ales from more traditional brewers. however i saw this one from a new brewery and thought it would be worth a go. not up there with my very favorite english ales, but definately something to work on. everyone has to start somewhere.

interesting color, sort of brown, sort of orange, with a very distinctive gold colored head. the beer doesnt have a huge amount of carbonation. smell is of sweet malts, and dried fruits. flavor is on the sweet side, tho not too much. it has good malt backbone, fruity and nutty all in one, and kind of bizarrely, a cheese like flavor happening somewhere in the mix. good hop bitterness complete the deal. fairly full bodied too for an english ale.

not a classic at this point, but with refinement over time, the stepping stones are definately there for this to forge a way among some of the finest english ales.

This poured a nice dark caramel color, with a very thin head which did not hold at all. Good on the nose, not overly strong, but definitely there. The carbonation was on the low side, but I have found this to be fairly standard for an English Ale.

Drinking wise, it had a good tartness at the back of the throat, and that lingered after you swallowed. While the hops were not noticable at the front of the mouth or on the nose, a mellow hop flavor was left at the end.

As english ales go, this is a good one.

Fat, oily and sticky. A touch of caramel and nuttyness. Surprisingly empty mouthfeel, lightly bitter, with some alcohol in the finish. A bit dissapointing, but not totally bad, the nuttyness is quite good, and the hops in the finish are OK, just tasted a bit raw to me.