EXSB
Bazens' Brewery Co Ltd

Brought back from the British bottled beer section, NWAF 06, Manchester. Bottle-conditioned, 500ml brown bottle presentation. Containing "barley, wheat, rye, oats and selected hops"... BBE DEC 2006, served cool in a straignt imperial-pint glass.

A: pours a slightly hazy amber hue, the effervescent beer head comes huge and rocky, shaping like a souffle and slowly collapsing into a 1.5cm-thick layer of cappucino-froth sustaining throughout the drink, leaving very tight, sponge-textured lacing... carbonation is constantly lively--great~~
S: pronounced fruity hoppyness dominates the nose, underlined by a milder but deep-running biscuity malts; slightly astringent and sour-sweet lemon-zest fruitiness (as from Challenger-kind of hops), backed by pineapple-ish, faintly piney and sour-bitter notes coming from the yeast-sediments, I presume. Very lively nose, with reasonable complexity on top of the malty theme.
T: lively and assertive, piney+phenolic+raw-nutty edges of farm-house ales hit the palate upfront, dancing freely~~ backed by a good-depth of semi-smoked/crystal maltiness, while a flow of bitter-sweet, woody, musty yeasty flavour plus citrus-zesty hops quietly fade in to join the nutty malts to round off the evolving palate; increasingly dryish at the back, plus a residual chewy aftertaste of grains and malts and a relatively understated yet lingering bitterness in the end.
M&D: extremely smooth as well as refreshingly soft on the mouthfeel, against a full body and a clear gravity... this beer really is a well-made bottle-conditioned beer, as delicious as quaffable. If one really needs to criticise anything, the hop content could've been tuned up a bit to underline the complex maltiness even better, IMO. All in all, this is a successful Premium Bitter by Bazens'--what a fantastic micro it has proved to be! I really look forward to trying it on cask.