Best
The Five Points Brewing Company

 

Cask at the Duke Organic. Very coppery in color and also somewhat in flavor. Very mild and understated overall though, and maybe more on the sweet side. I enjoyed it a lot (bitter is one of my favorite styles so I almost always enjoy any bitter I have) but this one is not going in my all-timers list, just in the "yeah it's good" list.

 

 

On cask at The Blue Maid pub in Southwark, London.
L: Clear, amber colour with a finger of soapy head that persists to the end.
S: Biscuity malt reminiscent of fresh-baked madeleines.
T: More malt plus a heft of leafy, stewed tea hops. Bitterness is medium/high. Aftertaste is copper, like sucking a 2p piece… but better.
F: Clean and very smooth with an astringent finish.
O: A proper English Bitter in a traditional style. Have had this in bottled format as well. The cask version is drier and more assertive: the Fuggles hops working very nicely.

Very much in the classical style, but with a modern twist of a few more bitter hops. Best Looks the part, a light amber with modest foam that sticks around as lace. Smells are mostly malt and, as it warms, are mostly more malt. Tastes are balanced until the very finish when the hops kinda upset the buttery finish. Medium-mouthed and has aspects of cask softness.

Bought from M&S (whose beer shelves seem like they are 75% M&S brands), Five Points Best either must be really good or M&S does contract brewing with them regularly. Anyhow, M&S is a great distribution network to bring quality craft to the masses and support the industry's over-capacity. Five Points seems a dedicated crafter; they deserve my good Overall Hugs.

Golden, slightly cloudy, bit of head stays down the glass. Slight spicy/floral aroma of fuggles hops. I enjoyed this beer, but I wouldn't consider it a best bitter, more of a modern take on a normal bitter without the 'tons of different hops' approach. If they replaced the 'best' with 'modern' I would give it 4 for taste. Nice biscuit/caramel flavours against a floral fuggles hop. Refreshing, easy drinking - great chilled.

On cask at the Old Nun's Head. Slightly hazy golden colour, with no head to speak of after a couple of minutes. Hoppy, funky, floral and pomey. An easy drinker.

Edit for bottle (Batch L2878, drunk 3rd April 2026, expiry date 11th March 2027): Pours a handsome hazy bronze with a large tight buff head. Pepper and honeysuckle on the nose, along with malt and apple. More of the same on the tongue, with a hoppy bitterness towards the end. Finishes sticky and bitter. Better in the bottle than the cask, in my limited experience.

 

Poured from a 500ml bottle.

Pours an ever so slightly cloudy amber-brown with visible sediment floating about and a finger thick white head. The smell is of malt , grass and hops and the taste follows on from this in a very well rounded way , there's a smooth biscuit flavour that contrasts nicely with a consistent bitterness and the barest hint of ripe fruit and citrus.
The mouthfeel is pretty on point , nicely carbonated and not watery .
Overall it's bitter , sweet and tasty. I'm kicking myself that I only bought one bottle .

Best before 2023/11/25
Pours a fizzy 1/2 finger head with fair retention, fair lacing, semi hazy blend to amber color

Nose starts fruity, like mild apricot pear nectarine and tart citrus pieces in jello, musty white wine, some buttery diacetyl, hint herbal hop

Taste biscuits, buttered crackers, diacetyl again I think, hops start a little herbal spicy then turn to citrus rind, and get quite spicy hop bitterness late and grassy lawn trimmings, mild sweet malt, long bitter finish

Mouth is med bod, touch of slick diacetyl, higher foamy carb

Overall not a huge fan, way too, um, bitter, for a best bitter, more like heavy ipa, while some diacetyl is common in British beers this night be a bit much, generally meh

 

cask bitter with fuggles hops, there might be editions with other hops, but it was a cool showcase of fuggles when i had it. a nice pale amber color to it, an almost nitro looking cream had from the engine, love this style in this format. smells fresher than most of these ever do, a nice mix of biscuity and honey type malts, bready and warming and hearty and toasted and sort baked without being too rich or sweet, but nicely layered, earthy. the yeast is also awesome here, classic english strain but used effectively to both dry this out and bring some neat fermentation character to this, the cask conditioning is also exceptionally well done here, maybe the best cask texture i had while in london. additionally, the hops are pretty bold, more bitter than flavorful, but more bitter than a lot of other beers in this style space, like this one actually is bitter, not just in name. nice mineral profile on the back end, some might say pennies, but i like the slight twang it finishes with, works with the hops, a slight hint of pine when it warms up. very soft in feel, medium bodied but the structure is good, nice and creamy and smooth in this format. nice beer overall, just my second from these guys, bold and more modern than others you see around. bravo.

Bottle (conditioned) and thus really an EPA. Amber with a thin head. Bubbles rising vigorously which settles after a while.
Smells of a mix of earthy English and citrus hops with hints of sulphur (which I like in an English Bitter). Malt present.
Tastes similar with a mild bitter finish. Good balance.
Soft carbonation reminiscent of cask. Light to medium body.
I would be happy to drink this at my local on cask and be styled properly as a bitter.
An excellent supermarket choice.

Blind-tasted except for the beer's name, ABV and brewery/country...
L- A surprisingly vibrant amber-orange, clear, pours with a partial 1mm lid of foam.
S- Mild, just some grain.
T- Dry, hoppy-dry, trad style ale, pale ale or does the 'Best' refer to Bitter? Some malts appear on my palate after a few sips when my palate adjusts to the bright hopping.
F- First sip of beer today and the bitterness is taking my throat by surprise. That soon calms and I soon begin to enjoy it more.
O- Refreshingly trad, ie zero mango, lychee, citrus, 5*kinds of perfumed hops and aliens blowing up stuff on the lable. This could be thought to have a simple profile but the fact it's achieved a great balance (and taste etc!) based upon a relatively small foundation of 4.1%ABV does it credit. - One for fans of trad ale, esp. versatile for people not wishing to get trollied, ie also an ideal lunch beer, or later session beer.
Review #1906/scoring all done, now the reveal, I get to read the bottle lables to see what I missed! ==> 'Batch 2017'. Contains barley and wheat, fuggles hops (the only hops here).
500ml bottle BB: 12/01/2022 £1.80 Bought from Sainsburys, Cromwell Road, London.