Hawkshead Red
Hawkshead Brewery /

 

Bottle. Clear auburn in colour. Frothy head.
Quite a rich toffee malt aroma. which leads nicely into the flavour.
Moderate bitter taste.
Quite a gentle feel.
Pretty well traditional EPA but could do with a bit more hop.

Pours a dark ruby with fine, tan head.

Smell is malty and hoppy with notes of rye bread, citrus, honey and some dried fruit.

Taste is malty and a bit sweet. Notes of rye bread, honey, caramel dried fruit and citrus. Solid bitterness, very drinkable.

Mouthfeel is medium, smooth and well carbonated.

Overall, a very nice red with plenty of flavor.

 

 

 

From a 500ml bottle.
L: Gorgeous dark amber colour with burnt orange edges. The thick, creamy, off-white head is unfortunately short-lived.
S: Rich and malty.
T: Burnt toffee, bitter hops.
F: Medium/light body with a slightly harsh, scratchy, very dry finish.
O: Decent, traditional, malty, English bitter with a hefty dose of bittering hops.

 

 

Half pint at 'spoons in Morecambe. Cask abv at 4.2%: does this constitute a downward trend? Brick red coloured beer with an offwhite head and a malt dominated smell. It tastes of milky cereal, becoming more wholewheattinged before a spicy hop finish. It's all rather muted though: could certainly do with being bolder, although the hops do become more apparent the more I drink and thisimproves the experience. Perhaps overly smooth.

It looks really nice red stained wood body with big thick just of white head

the aroma has more hops than the taste slight red berry taste with rotten veg

Just a very flat insipid taste mainly malt with a some fruity hops and low key bitter finish

okay MF slightly over fizzy

A pleasant enough bitter
but not the usual strawberry liquorice element
that is found with most hoppy U.S. inspired Red/amber Ales

 

A 500ml bottle with a BB of Dec 2012. ABV is stated as 4.4%. Picked up some time back from Booths.

Poured into a tulip pint glass. A deep reddish-amber hue with medium carbonation. Forms a decent head of creamy off-white foam that lasts for a few minutes before subsiding. Aroma of grainy caramel malt with hints of husk, nuttiness, faint brown sugar, mild grass/hay, stewed hops and yeast. There is a slight metallic note and a whiff of cardboard in the background.

Tastes of caramel malt with a dry, bitter finish. Notes of grain, caramel, mild brown sugar, grass/hay, stewed hops and subtle yeast. A hint of cardboard/sherry in the background. A restrained, leafy bitterness upon swallowing. Mouthfeel is smooth, dry and tingly, with pleasant carbonation and decent body. Slightly astringent, with an aftertaste of bitter stewed leaves, grain and a metallic twang.

An OK bitter but nothing outstanding. The emphasis is on the malt, although the bittering hops come through well as you swallow. Little aromatic hops to speak of - this is a pretty traditional offering and would go down alright on cask. Decent, but probably not worth hunting down.

500ml bottle. 4.4% ABV. BB Dec 2011.

This beer pours a clear, bright brassy amber hue, with two fingers of rocky, tacky off-white head, which leaves some sturdy chunky hanging lace around the glass upon its retreat. It smells of mild caramel malt, some peppy breadiness, and earthy, floral, zippy hops. The taste is dry bready malt, some seeded fruitiness, a bit of ash, and earthy, restrained hops. The carbonation is quite sedate, the body just under medium weight status, but fairly smooth in consolation. It finishes mildly bready, mildly fruity, mildly hoppy, and majorly, well, English.

A very pretty, unassuming ale - the 'Red' in the name confusing we Canadians who have come to expect something entirely different from that modifier. Anyways, for a bitter, this is adequate, in that the bitterness is just a might bit underwhelming, even for the style. Still easy as, um, (what would Russell Brand say?) to drink...

Coming in a 500ml long neck brown bottle, this beer is not bottle-conditioned--perhaps filtered and/or pasteurised? Batch 1514, BB 04/2007, served cool in a straight imperial-pint glass.

A: the long-neck and wide-shoulder shape of the bottle helps create a huge and tightly frothy beige head with great retention, on top of an elegant and absolutely clear dark ruby hue; very gentle carbonation detected.
S: through the layer of dusty note of the foam first comes dried berris, raisins combined with tangerine-like citrus aroma, while aromatic nectarine-like fruitiness, thickly-juicy longan-fruits and caramely maltiness in turn provide a solid backbone. Overall the aroma is sweet malty and ve...ry fruity, in line with a premium bitter and actually quite like a lesser Fuller's ESB!
T: the mildly spicy bitter hoppyness fast overwhelm the fruity-malty palate in the middle... leading fast to roast-nuttiness and burned edges of dark malts, while the high content of bitterness like ground dried-Chinese medicine-herbs and roast tea-leaves just expands everywhere and cuts deep down the palate... in the aftertaste those deeper fruity elements as on the nose, e.g. longan-fruits, gradually develop in the form of aroma, along with more dryish roast nuts and a little dark chocolatey hint of malts. But the well-lingering bitterness, its tea-ish aroma of dried leafy hops, and the almost tongue-plucking, dry-ing mouthfeel really triggers more thirst sip by sip...
M&D: slightly more spritzy than necessary on the mouthfeel, but not OTT; a med.-bodied autumny premium bitter showing a profound bitter depth and length from the first second of tasting throughout, while the lesser fruity and malty elements help strike a rough balance. As a Bitter drinker, I find this beer really enjoyable indeed. Looking forward to next trip to Lake District and sample this beer on draught!