Edwin Tucker's East India Pale Ale
Teignworthy Brewery

I had a very pleasant visit to Tucker's Malting's in Newton Abbott and decided to pick up a bottle of the IPA while I was there. The malt is produced at Tuckers, and the beer is made by Teignworthy, who they actually share the building with.

The beer pours a deep orange with a finger of off-white head, which exhibits good retention and lacing. The nose is sweet and rich, perhaps helped by the warmer serving temperature of the beer. Sweet citrus in the form of candied orange and tangerine blend with a very strong malt backbone and a decent hoppiness. The flavours are almost tropical, with their mix of orange, mango, lychee and candy sugar. At first this provides a malty sweetness, but this soon moves through to a bitter hoppiness. The finish is both dry and warming. One of the heavier IPAs I've had, and certainly one of the heavier attempts at the English style, which actually makes it feel like it has some substance.

I've never been impressed with English IPAs, but this one could make me change my mind. Its so rich and flavourful, and it actually delivers on the bitterness. highly recommended.

Poured from a room temperature 500ml bottle into a traditional pint glass.

Appearance: Cloudy golden honey in colour, pouring with sizable creamy white head, with good retention. No visible carbonation at all.

Aroma: Fruity citrus, with a subtle hoppiness. Slightly acidic yeasty smell.

Taste: Sweet at first, almost sugary. Quickly replaced by dry, sharp fruity citric flavours, which are incredibly refreshing and crisp. The finish is bitter and hoppy.

Mouthfeel: Medium body. Flat, yet crisp and clean.

Drinkability: Not a usual IPA, provides a much cleaner, crisper taste than most. It's a fairly unusual taste but it really pays off. If you can get your hands on this beer, you won't regret it, however, I have a feeling that it is retired or being retired, so, hurry!

Purchased at the bottled beer bar at the NWAF 06, Manchester. Coming in a 500ml brown bottle, this ale is bottle-conditioned and intends to replicate "the East India Pale Ales of the past", for which the brewery produces "a limited kilning of East India Malt" adhering to traditional kilning temperature for this kind of malts. BB 01/2007, served cool in a straight imperial-pint glass.

A: pours a bright, dark orangey amber hue with a little haziness from yeast-sediments; a very tight and frothy beer head sustains brilliantly on the top, being supported by constant streams of gentle fizziness...
S: upfront is a very thick aroma of pronounced malty sweetness with a candy-sugary, perfumy hint, while a rich, fruity hop aroma mixed of sweet tangerines+oranges, rotten bouquet to fermented honey, and a slightly stinky edge of rose-syrup stay firmly behind... The huge maltiness is matched with an equally-pronounced hoppyness, though the thickly sweet edge is not easily softened. A bit overpowering for my nose, but still nice.
T: a semi-sharp textured, exotic yeasty, sweet fruity, and warming malty palate prevail on the palate... almost like the texture of a Belgian Pale Ale (I'm not kidding or going mad!); an oily hoppyness, boiled root-vegetables, and more dryish+spicy hops slowly take over, leading to a rather "neutral" aftertaste full of warming alcohol and a tannic-dryish mouthfeel on the tongue and a crisp-ness b/w the teeth, but very low level of bitterness is there to entertain. Overall, the attempt at hoppyness is not an issue here, but the balance is.
M&D: rather fizzy for my palate, against a medium-full body, reminding me of some big ales on tap... Heavier than most English IPAs I've tried, and, if I may, I think it's an intoxicating and unbalanced attempt to mimick the modern IPA style, more in line with the "US volume" with hall-mark English ingredients, esp. hops. All in all, it's an interesting beer and well worth a try though~~