Nipperkin
The Drowned Lands

16oz can

Pours about a finger of off-white head into my Nonic. Retention is decent, the head lasts for a couple minutes before settling into a film. Initial lacing looks pretty nice. Body is a somewhat cloudy, brownish orange. Looks pretty good so far.

Nose has a light backbone of caramel and toffee that comes out more with agitation, some fruity esters underneath that. There is a very fresh feel to this, makes me want to say there are some minty hop notes here. This smells good, but it doesn’t quite have an identity yet.

Flavor definitely has a light caramel back bone; faint toffee. Not too many esters or mint come through on the flavor. This is pretty one dimensional, but that’s also kinda what I expect from this style. Tastes good.

Carbonation is about medium, maybe medium-high. The body is quite light, and definitely fits the lighter malt profile and carbonation. While somewhat malty, it’s well attenuated and drinks very well, though not dry. Perceived bitterness is on the low end, though I have never found bitters to be all that bitter. It’s a nice mouthfeel, it fits the flavor.

Drinkability is great, this is tasty, not cloying, and pretty light.

Appearance turned out poorer than it started, zero lacing and the head died pretty hard.

Overall a nice lighter British ale that still has plenty of flavor.

 

Poured from undated can into a Willi Becher glass. It pours a cloudy, honey-orange color with a half finger of foamy, bright white head and thin film of soapy lacing. Its nose features toasted white bread spread with caramel and just a whiff of spice. The taste is exactly as expected: very lite, dry biscuit and subtle caramel/toffee. There is considerable bitterness at the finish. The mouth feel is extremely lite and crisp with a pleasant level of carbonation. And the 4.5% ABV is barely noticeable. Overall, it's hard to get excited over an English Bitter (I prefer ESBs) but Drowned Lands has brewed Nipperkin true to the style. It's a very nice beer.