YSD (Yates' Special Draught)
Yates' Brewery

Bottle-conditioned, 500ml brown glass bottle. Batch No.YSD 201, BB End Mar. 2007. Served cool in a straight imperial-pint glass.

A: slightly murky, dark orangey golden in colour; a very restrained beer head settles fast to a rimmed foam; low carbonated.
S: semi-sharp citrus fruits and sour-sweet pear-drop upfront, on top of a perfumy Cascade like flowery and pollen-like hoppyness... mildly dusty, damp and spicy at the back, showing a good input from Fuggles hops as well as farm-house yeastiness. The malty entry is relatively mild, but noticeable as a solid platform underneath, slightly sweet.
T: slightly piney, dryish-bitter, white grapefruit zest like fruitiness+yeastiness prevail upfront, joined force with an intensifying flow of bitter taste of dried hops (as if dry-hopping?); like the aroma, the malty performance is attenuated and serves rather as the backbone, allowing the citric-fruitiness and the deeply hoppy flavour to lead the show. Long, dryish, bitter aftertaste, with chewy dried hop-leaves and tea-leaves of Fuggles, while an citric edge and very subtle flowery aroma (supposedly from Cascade) linger down the sides and end of the tongue.
M&D: the fizziness is ideal on the mouthfeel, very soft AND refreshing. With its profound bitterness and almost absence of strong alc., the medium-bodied beer is to me very much like a session beer regardless of the strength. Truly deserving the Bronze Medal in the bottle-conditioned beer category at the GBBF 2004. Nice one!