Crouch Vale Amarillo
Crouch Vale Brewery Limited

October 2016: 500 ml bottle, from Ales by Mail. ABV is 5.0%. Golden colour, low white head. Pleasant aroma of spicy and fruity Amarillo hops. The flavour is mid between sweet and dry, with juicy and spicy hops throughout.

Golden colour. Light but long lasting head.
Aroma of fresh American hops.
Little flavour at the start of the pint but gradually improved later as the hops released their full taste and became balanced with some malt not detected at the start.
Insubstantial mouthful.
The west coast hops raised this above the standard British Blonde beer.

Poured from a bottle into a shaker pint, the beer is a bright, vibrant, gold coloring with little to no head. A steady flow of carbonation lifts the aromas of toffee sweetness, bready notes, toasted grains, and subtle oily and bitter hops notes. Solid floral and leafy green highlights in the nose, too. Flavors are heavily roasted, with a solid toasted grain backbone, supporting heavy floral and slightly bitter hops notes, hints of pepper spice, fruity esters, and a rich, sweet, slightly caramel backbone. Pretty well balanced, with the roast and dry notes going into the aftertaste. The body was robust, and the finish is slick and smooth. Big beer.

Coming in a slim 500ml brown bottle, BB 05/2014, served mildly chilled in a straight imperial pint glass.

A: pours a lightly hazy, dark orangey golden colour, coming with a thin and fast dissipating off-white head on top of fairly mild carbonation.
S: upfront the acidic, overripe-fruit esters seem to dominate, with sweet candy-ish malts, peaches, hints of orangey citrusness, and honey lagging behind. The balance is obviously disturbed by the fruit esters, IMO, hence the aroma from Amarillo hops being rather restrained in my glass.
T: quite effervescent, the flavour is consistent with the aroma, that the overripe fruity notes and honey-ish malts dominate from the start, with a good level of acidity and bitter-sweetness balancing off the sweetness of malts and sugar; the mid-taste has a little gristy, raw nut-ish malt aroma to it, followed by a rather moderate flow of chewy bitterness lingering, leaving just a hint of spice and a mildly dry-ish mouthfeel at the end of each sip.
M&O: refreshing on the palate, medium-bodied, this is an unbalanced and estery blond ale that strangely drinks well and has its own charm. But I would not want to try its bottle version again; would love to have it on cask instead, as Crouch Vale is very good at their cask ales in general.

 

A 500ml bottle with a BB of July 2012. Picked up down South when visiting a friend for his birthday.

Poured into a Sam Smith's pint glass. A clear golden hue with good carbonation. Yields a decent head of white foam that lasts for a minute or two before subsiding. Aroma of sweet, fruity aromatic hops underpinned by caramel malt and stewed hops. Notes of tropical fruit and citrus, with a whiff of buttery diacetyl in the background.

Tastes of aromatic hops with a malty backbone and a crisp bitter finish. Notes of grapefruit, sharp citrus and tropical fruit, followed by sweet malt and stewed hops. A hint of diacetyl rounds it off. Restrained bitterness upon swallowing, though the stewed hop character seems overdone. Mouthfeel is smooth, dry and tingly, but rather insubstantial. Somewhat astringent. Aftertaste of bitter stewed hops and fruity aromatics.

Pretty good, but flawed. The fruity aromatic hops are great, but the overall impression is spoiled by diacetyl and an excessive stewed hop flavour in the background. The mouthfeel and body are also a bit thin. If only it were bottle conditioned.... Tasty nonetheless, and worth trying (but cask would be even better).

White gold with steady rocky foam. Cookie dough and orange peel nose.
Maris Otter biscuit with some peach and Berocca orange ending. Lemon sorbet finish and dry tight linger.
Medium, soft, creamy, slight chew.

American hop heads will be bored, but this is just the way to do a US-hopped English blonde. Lots of light, bright aroma hops, with just enough malt to balance. I've tasted similar results with EKG, so I'm not sure why they did it this way, but I'm not complaining.

Pours a slightly hazed, but very bright and light-coloured golden with a frothy and turbid head of off-white, that looks almost like the creamy English ale head formed from no more than perturbation of the beer. Rather light body, and very little perceptible carbonation. Looks pretty decent, a little like a cask pour.

Nose is bright and hoppy, with pleasant citric Amarillo characters subdued by a buttery English malt character, that makes it flatter than an American example would be. Hint of menthol to it. It's actually pretty mild, considering the hop-centric nature of the beer, but it's bright and pleasant enough.

Taste is indeed very mild, and here the light, grainy English malts come through to give a semi-sweet savour to the palate. Minimal bitterness, and even the aromatic Amarillo character is only sensed through smell. Feel is light but drinkable.

I feel it's slightly too sweet for what it is, and certainly a little too malt-driven for something named directly after a hop variety, but it's an interesting English American Pale Ale, and shows that the difference in the styles is not just down to the main hops.

Pours amber with a small quickly fading head.
Nose shows lots of citrus and tropical fruit, very sweet-smelling. Also a lot of sweet malt with cookie-dough and toffee characters.
Similar flavours with more tropical fruit and the same malt characteristics. Finishes with an assertive bitterness that can't compete with the sweet malt.
Could use a bit more carbonation.
A bit heavy-handed with the malt but otherwise really good stuff.

This is 5.0%ABV and pours a see through pale straw hue with decent carbonation that leaves behind a two finger head and sporadic lacing,the smell is sweet citrus,fruity hops and toffee malts,the mouthfeel is light bodied and wanting with tastes of sweet oranges,a touch of lime,candy,caramel/toffee and finished with a fruity bittersweet mostly sweet finish and overall if this is truly meant to be an EIPA it doesnt hit the mark at all and probably would not buy again.

Poured a deep golden hue with a thich creamy head that lasted throughout the intire beer. Beautiful citrus, slight pine, grass and straw all in the aroma, Tastes much of the same. So wonderfully balanced. Creamy smooth and so damn easy to drink. I could drink it all day and not get bored or overwelmed. Really one of my new favorites in the style.

Pours a clear golden yellow color with a thick white foamy head that settles into a lacing that lasts throughout. Aroma is dominated by earthy, citrus hops. Very quaffable and refreshing with a nice subtle malt backbone balancing out the citrus earthy hops. Crisp and smooth, very refreshing.