Cask Bitter
Great Dane Pub & Brewing Company (Downtown)

Cask Bitter poured a dark drown color, with very little head. There was a weak aroma, but had a weak vinegar like note. The taste was much of the same, weak and tasted like vinegar. Hard to drink, wouldn't want another one. Overall there wasn't much here with this beer, probably best to avoid.

 

Great Dane always seems to have one of these going by one name or another...English Special Ale, ESB, Barker's, et. al, or something analogous but slightly more American Pale Ale in nature . And I've come to enjoy them all as sessioners off the cask, but nothing truly special independently and more or less interchangeable.

Ironically, this one with the most generic name of all , excels.

It's served with a plump yellow creamed head topping a brown-amber liquid. Aromas of caramel-toffee, buttered doughy breads, hard water, and brittle herbs and wild grasses (with ample bitterness), and a touch of resin.
Taste follows suit. A ping-pong match of toasty, apple, doughy, buttery, nutty, toffeed, malt base precedes a sere hoppiness of dried flowers, grasses, and a touch of pine. The cask adds subtle woody tones that click into place with it all, and take it from good to special.
It's relatively light in body, pushing towards medium, with that low cask carbonation. There's a good deal more body here than in many of Great Dane's cask bitter (ESB, APA...etc.) offerings, and it makes a whallop of difference.
This is an all-nighter. Not boring in the least. Authentically British in flavor, feel, and personality. They can stop the frequent dabbling and experimentation, because this is the winner.

It was simply called "Cask Bitter." The bar was very busy, but the tender was able to yell off "it's English--hand pumped" before he hand to run off and help someone else.

Dark pour, large head.

Smells of a strong ESB. Doesn't have the lightly buttery spiciness of many ESB's, though. This has a firm malt that's like a cross between a bitter and an APA and that's mixed with a hop blend that smelled like a combination of American and British citrus and spice. (They may well have been using only British hops that I am just not familiar with, but the effect is that of an American/British blend).

Tastes much hoppier than I'm used to with ESBs. Spicy European hops start things off, and those move quickly into citrusy, more bluntly bitter west coast hops. This gives way to just a wee hint of spicy ESB breatmalt and ends with a nice, bitter aftertaste.