Adnams / Yeastie Boys Gunnamatta Tea Leaf IPA
Adnams plc, Sole Bay Brewery

 

Tried on cask at The Tyburn, Marble Arch in London. I'm a frequent drinker of the Kiwi version, so I was rather excited to find this, quite at random, while I was in London.

Pours a burnt golden colour with a clear, solidly-weighted body. Head is yellow-white and forms a foamy, firm crest. Lace is impressive, intricate and persistent. Lots of static carbonation when tilted. Looks great.

Weird fruitiness comes off the nose. I get raspberries, orange boiled sweets and a full, smooth malt underneath. Slight chlorine characters come through as well. It's odd, and certainly sweeter than the version I remember, but still very good.

Orange sweetness on the front of the palate leads to a bit of minerally bitterness through the centre. Boiled orange character lingers a little, but with that persistent sweetness tending to overwhelm the hop bitterness. There are some tannins on the back, but it's not really bitter at all. The smoothness from the cask probably help propagate this as well.

Overall, it's a very drinkable beer, and certainly an interesting one—I did find it quite different to the original: the sweetness is much bigger here, and those fruit characters much more pronounced—how much that's to do with the recipe and how much to do with the serving type, I'm not quite sure. I think it needs more bitterness to be truly as refreshing and tasty as the original, but this is certainly still cracking stuff.