Mid-Summer Ale
Anglo Dutch Brewery

Tasted by a half pint at the Devonshire Cat, Sheffield, on 25 June 2007. Handpulled w/ a sparkler. According to the brewery's website, I suppose this is a " very very special" experimental product indeed, as it is not even found in Anglo-Dutch's "one-offs or deleted" list?!... weird...

A: very pale yellow-straw in colour with great clarity, a thin white froth sits on top of pretty low carbonation befitting for a cask ale.
S: mildly lemon-zesty note dominates, while a swirl brings out a spiciness as of anise, phenol and ginger-tea. Very refreshing and distinctively hoppy, albeit not particularly complex.
T: the foretaste is very spicy along with a light hoppiness, suggesting anise, coriander (seeds/leaves?), plenty of ginger… backed by a milder edge of sour lemons and a soothing, light, faintly toasted grainy flavour like lager-malts. The aftertaste shows lots of intensifying, even tongue-plucking, dry hop bitterness, that lasts so well to complement the pronounced spiciness that lasts throughout the drink.
M&D: almost crisply-clan on the texture, with very faint fizziness overall; however, the body is a tad thin. A thirst-quenching summer spiced/ginger Blond Bitter this is, in need of a more pronounced malt flavour to render some weight.