John Bull Ale
Eagle Brewery

 

On tap (keg) at Sherlock Holmes Pub, Aarhus. Copper coloured beer (the pub was not very well lighted, though), low creamy head. Predominantly malty aroma and flavour with notes of toffee, hints of hazelnuts. Moderate bitterness in the finish. Smooth and easy drinking.

Beer looked good with a great head and color but tasted flat and odd. First beer i had in a log time that i didnt enjoy in any fashion. Draught in Krakow.

 

500mL can from the LCBO. Fridge temp into a stein.

Reddish brown with a nice amount of tan head. Decent retention too.

Nose is yeasty; bready; a bit chemical. Malty as an EPA should be. Fruity as well.

A bit syrupy and sweetish for me, especially at such a low abv. Palate is too heavy and oily for my taste. A decent hop bite at the end smooths it out though.

A - Poured into a pint glass still and reddish amber in colour. A few centimetres of thick off white head that slowly falls away.
S - Grain, slightly sweet caramel maltiness & some light floral notes.
T - The sweet caramel dominates. Some mineral touches, slightly metalic.
M - Light to medium bodied, virtually no carbonation.
D - A nice, sessionable beer that I'd drink on a semi-regular basis.

canette de 500ml.

surprenante bière de belle couleur d’un cuivré foncé très claire, la mousse est compacte et onctueuse, elle a un nez peu ouvert de malt, sa bouche est houblonnée, elle est piquante et ronde, pas mauvaise pour une bière commerciale.

Coming in Wells' Full-Pint (568ml) clear bottle, the label has the name as John Bull Finest Bitter, freshness info. missing; served cool in a befitting, straight traditional full-pint glass.

A: pours a bright, dark reddish amber hue, topped with a pretty tight and ever-lasting, light-beige capuccino froth, fed by constant and fine carbonation underneath.
S: sweet caramely and richly autumny-fruity like a premium bitter is normally supposed to show, suggesting sour red apples, prunes, raisins, and caramelised oranges, while the caramely hint of crystal malts is also coupled with a... kinda coconut+cream-ish note. After five minutes the smell just turns simply sour-fruity. I can tell from the nose that it's to a certain extent based on Wells' Bombardier Premium Bitter, but not as nice.
T: the initially unpleasant mixture of pasteurisation's burned-sugary taste and cheap sourness fast lead towards a slightly astringent autumn-fruitiness, but quickly saved by an aftertaste consisting of faint biscuity pale ale malts, sweet tea's dryish, earthy bitterness, a bitter edge from seriously-burned sugar, and some "tangy" hops (as indicated on the label!). After several sips, the structure is also blurred, just like the messy aroma.
M&D: quite soft in carbonation and refreshing enough, yet pasteurisation seems to kill off lots of subtle flavours and shaks up the wavering balance, while the clear-bottle packaging doesn't seem to do the beer any good. As I remember it, the cask version tastes a tad better. So this is not a successful bottled beer, but not horrible for sure.

I came across this in the Asda superstore in Elgin. Having tried a few pints from the Charles Wells brewery before I was looking forward to sampling this brew.

The beer poured beautifully into the glass: a bronze-brownish coloured pint with a thick off white head. The main thing I noticed throughout the duration of the pint was the excellent retention and lacing that the head left. This is what I expect from a cask ale, not a bottled ale, top notch.

The nose was slightly disappointing, a faint note of dried figs, but this was very faint.

Fruitiness dominated the initial taste which gave way to slightly bitter hops but the beer left no real aftertaste. The beer was also slightly lighter than I expected, too light for a decent pint of bitter this body was only just a step up from a pilsner lager.

However I enjoyed the pint, although not great there was something very drinkable about it. I would go for another but this is not up to the standard of Bombardier or Banana Bread Beer.

Beautiful, copper tawn colour with a large head that lasts even after the beer is finished. Lace clings to the glass, coating it with beautiful, intricate designs. Smells a bit raw. Plenty of earth, grass and some sweet caramel and malts. Good taste. Starts out with a raw earth taste, which slowly mingles into a sweet and spicy taste, ending with a dry grassy finish. Mouthfeel is creamy and light, with a medium carbonation. A good ale.

A good refreshing pale ale. Has a lovely head and great retention. Good lacing as well. Has a copper colour. The nose is the least favorite part of this beer for me. Has some sweet notes, a touch of earthy hops and spice. My mouth picks up some sweet malt along with some hard water characteristics ( not sure what water they use but that's what I pick up or something metallic) the hops don't make much of an appearance but they are there. A nice session beer.

Clear 568ml (a pint) bottle, best before Nov 2007, drank June 2007.

Poured into a pint sleeve glass. Good dark amber, redwood colour with a firm biege head. The beer was clear and had bubbles rising through, it looked very drinkable ( and drinkable it is).

There was no aroma for me at all, even as the beer warmed up (not that it was cold to start with), I couldn't detect a hint of hops, malts, yeast or anything else.

A good solid English Bitter, this is not a Pale Ale, as stated on this site. The front label calls it 'FINEST BITTER', which gives it away a little bit really. On the rear it claims to have the 'tang' of a traditional London-Style Bitter and its golden tawny colour. Well it does have a slight citrusy 'tang', but I wouldn't call it a modern London style bitter.

A very nice drink, pity about the lack of aroma, I wonder if my nose has packed up working?

Can: Poured a medium copper color ale with a nice big thick white foamy head with great retention and really good lacing. Aroma of semi-sweet malt with a nice English touch of English hops. Taste is nice mix between slightly sweet biscuit English malt with a nice subtle bitterness at the end with a nice touch of floral hops. I thought this was very well done and I am not sure why such low ratings for that one.

Nice, clear, coppery coloured beer. Poured a big 2" off-white head that dissipated fairly quickly; but there still was a skim of foam when I finished it. Specks of lace.
Smells sweet and somewhat fruity. Where others are getting citrus I got apples. Almost no hops at first. But as it warmed up the hops become more aggressive. Then I noticed citrus.
Tasted sweet, some malt, also some strange adjunct-like flavour (maybe just DMS working together with something else). Hops are quite mild to start but more aggressive in the middle. Slight lingering hop bitterness. As with the aroma, more aggressive hop profile as it warms.
Light body propped up by the carbonation.

Served from a 500ml can

A- amber color, pours a nice off white head, good lace.

S-sweet, hints of roasted malt, spicy, floral hops, slight citrus

T- Caramel, bread, mildly earthy, nice sweetness. I found this to be very similar to a honey lager. Slightly bitter finish.

M- light/Medium bodied, Moderately carbonated, Sweet and creamy but not too heavy.

D- Drinkability is much better than what i expected. Even though it tastes slightly watered down, theres still some nice flavors.

Overall this beer doesnt exactly blow my hair back, theres lots of other good EPAs out there, but hey its not bad, if offered drink up. Its worth a try.

Pretty basic pale,somewhat drinkable, significant amber colour and white foaming head. A tad hop aroma and bitterness in taste. Nothing special, though did get the cinammon and toastiness and malt and hneyness mentioned by Pootz, but nothing I liked.

Crystal clear copper color with a fluffy-creamy off-white cap that lasts well, laces well.

Decent nose: Caramel wrapped with a spicey earthiness...promising nose, no "off" smells and very tempting like a spiced musty-sweet biscuit.

Sweet crystal and Caramel malty-toastiness up front balanced by spicey cinnamon-like tones, mid palate the hops turn a tad more aggressive...smooth balanced finish with a toasted honey-like aftertaste.

Decent drinkable ale possibly a tad watery in body but this seems to be a trait of all commercial UK ales under 5%abv...much more then I was expecting from this brewer.

Another canned import that seems to exist ONLY in Ontario, via the LCBO and is never heard of by anyone from its country of origin... 500ml CAN (idiots - see other canned British reviews for can rant), reads 4.8%, with best before of 31/10/07. What 'bull' today was, so I figured trying a new beer from a bad brewery seemed about right...
Pours with good form of head, much of which faded, creamy and white. A deep colour, attractive as well. Good lacing. Shaded transparency. A soft, unaggresive aroma - trace malts, perhaps faint hops, an overcoat of something like British pudding, or banada bread. Initially, while still cold, mouthfeel is well held together. Carbonation quite high but still under control, texture is dulled but not a distraction. Flavour is overwhelmed by a caramel malt. Lots of amber malt in the taste with touch of mineralness. Simple, quenching perhaps on some levels but with very little redeeming qualities. I expected much worse, this was all in all a decent offering.

A: Copper-amber, off-white head, very little retention, nice lacing.

S: Mild, but a pleasant spicyness with a slight earthy citrus aroma. Slight maltyness (caramel, nut & bread).

T: Spicy, slight earth, orange and metallic flavours (though not nearly as minerally as some of their brews). Caramel sweetness could use a little more bitterness for balance.

M: Impressive for its weight. Moderate body has some residual sweetness, but it's not cloying. Moderate carbonation.

D: Plenty of flavour for this light weight. It's not overly enticing, but you could certainly session this.

pours a reddish copper colour with a big rocky tan head. drops slowly and leaves spotty lace.

aroma is nice. biscuity malt. floral hops, with just a hint of grapefruit. light roastyness.

taste is ok. moderate bitterness. bit of dms. slightly watery biscuit malt. bit of alcohol.

mouthfeel is ok. feels a little thin. moderate carbonation level is good.

drinkability is ok. the bitterness seems to hang around, but not much else is memorable about this one.