Challenge Ale
Castle Eden & Camerons Brewing Company Ltd

Tasted this beer by half-pint at my Wetherspoon local on 17/05/05.
I notice I'm the first one on this website to review this beer on cask. A question mark here: why is this beer categorised in "Fruit/Vegetable Beer"? Although it's said to be brewed using a dash of orange (juice? or peels?), its taste makes it more akin to a fruity English bitter than the category tends to suggest.

Appearance: pours a amber colour with a very thin, white head--beautiful lace left along the way~~
Smell: refreshingly fruity (orange-peel) aroma plus good balance of malty note--quite straight-forward!
Taste & Aftertaste: mouthful of date-like(?) fruity malts, light hoppyness; the finish is quite bittersweet, with some trace of raisins, and given a nice tangy fruity kickback.
Mouthfeel: the body is a bit "floating" at first--due to abundant fizz, but it turns more and more smooth along the way; it's a medium-bodied bitter and a very nice session beer, albeit not exactly flavoursome enough for my palate.

The beer pours an amber color with a 1/4" white head that fades to lacing. The aroma is good. It has a solid malty scent with a slight citrus aroma. It boasts of crystal malts and a dry British ale yeast along with bits of orange essence. The taste is decent. It has a light, yet malty flavor that goes down easy with a slight citrus orange edge. It is dry and very drinkable. The mouthfeel is decent. It is a medium bodied beer with good carbonation. This is an easy drinker, but I wish it had a bit more malt character and body. All in all, this is a good brew. It has orange character, but it only compliments the overall flavor.

Pours with a white one-finger head, fades quickly and leaves traces of lace. Medium carbonation and medium bodied. Clear amber color. Nose is a faint malt. Starts and finishes with a good malt/hop balance, there is a hint of orange in the aftertaste. $4.35 for a 500ml bottle from Colonial Spirits Acton, MA.

Dark, burnished orange with the faintest suggestion of scarlet when backlit. The pale ecru cap of airy, fragile-bubbled foam appears to compress rather than fall. Within minutes it's creamier, more compact and more attractive. A respectable amount of speckled lace finds its way to the glass.

There's isn't much going on in the underpowered nose. About all I can appreciate is a faint malt presence (weak butterscotch) mingled with some lackluster fruity hops. The label quote reads 'A Dark Amber Coloured Beer with a Clever Twist of Orange'. The brewers must not have been quite clever enough because there's no orange according to my nose.

The beer is a bit better on the palate, but still isn't up to snuff. It tastes like a weak, slightly mineral-like ESB. Although the amount of bitterness increases with warming, the hop load still isn't where I'd like it to be. In addition, the toasted pale malt base could be firmer. The finish leans toward bitter and dry (used up tea leaves) and the body/mouthfeel is light and weakly carbonated. Still no orange.

After seeing the juicy, dripping, freshly-cut orange on the label, I was all set for a delicious, orange-infused English pale ale or ESB. It was not to be. Challenge Ale isn't a challenge to drink, but neither does it stand out or impress in any way. My prescription: more malt, more hops and much more (any would be nice) orange flavor. I can't recommend this one.

Clear, pale orange hue, near tea-colored, with a slim-to-non-existent head.
Aroma: citric and sour at first, herbal, vegetal, no hops, and little malt, either. A typical 'ESB'-type aroma, nothing special.
Taste: very minor. I'm a bit non-plussed, as I can't find much to describe here. What's the "challenge"? Where's the flavor? Supposed to be with a hint of orange, and there is that, yes, but it's so small, and adds little to what little taste is already here. Mostly, I'm left with what feels like an herbal tea blended with an ESB...or what that's worth...
Light medium bodied, swift, non-descript finish....a bit of a dud, in my book. Not to be revisited by these tastebuds!

A Bitter, but with some added orange...darker brown-hued amber, clear appearance. Head is bright white, but middling on a hard pour. Laces in lots of small crescent shapes. Slightly winey aroma, some bits of clove and overall toast. Mouthfeel is not quite medium, carbonation adequate but understated. Starts out with dark maple syrup, notes of spicy nutmeg, and a bit of sugar candy. Staunchly balanced, dry English hops seem to combine with the citrus rind sense of the added orange to quickly produce a noticeable bittering that is clearly the choice for the dominant flavor at the close. I like this beer, a little different with a nice malt beginning as well.