Golden Lion
Red Lion Ales

Pale golden ale with a very well-laced white head, but it leaves completely faster than its shade. The nose consists of bread and hops. Aqueous mouthfeel. It's somewhat tart, which reveals its age + accentuated the lemon character. Blind, I'd have thought it's a bad hefe-weizen.

Presentation: Sampled during my recent Easter vacation trip back to the UK. Dispensed fresh from the Handpump at O’Donoghue's (see BeerFly) in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. Golden Lion was a new brew for me, and not one that I had tried before. Brewed in my home town of Ossett, by one of the original partners in the Ossett Brewery. Now on his own, Bob Hunter is creating his own beer at the Red Lion Brewery, also in Ossett. Bob was renowned for his hoppy golden Pale Ales whilst at the Ossett Brewery, and this is something he has continued at the Red Lion, with his portfolio all exhibiting this trait.

Appearance: A man-sized proper Imperial Pint served in a straight sided sleeve glass that I love to hate. This too has a light exceptionally clear pale straw colored body. Intense activity as the beer was pulled into my Pint Glass helped to lend a super presentation to this brew. The head slowly settled to a thick 2” on the Bar as the rather attractive young woman behind the bar took my Five Pound Note and sorted out my change. Once I was suitably sorted fiscally, she then proceeded to “top-up” the heady Pint and slowly teased a rather trim looking ½” off-white, perfectly smooth and creamy looking head. Another fine looking Cask Ale from the Red Lion Brewery.

Nose: Floral and hoppy, the East Kent Goldings are immediately detectable and lend a classic hoppy nose to this English Pale Ale. Some biscuit malt odors, but they are very light and always make way for the Hops here.

Taste: A good dose of East Kent Goldings really form the trademark of this fine brew. Bitter and hoppy, more so than most UK Cask Bitters, give the Golden Lion a decent hop bite in the middle and a rather attractive biting but clean bitterness in the back end. Lingering astringency.

Mouthfeel: Heavily biased with an astringent bitterness, it nevertheless benefits greatly from the kind of fine carbonation only found in Cask-Conditioned beer. The conditioning was smooth and the feel creamy, this slipped down all too easily as a consequence.

Drinkability: The bitterness is quite incredible for a UK Cask Ale. Having spent nearly 30 months on the West Coast now, it is still quite rare to find a UK Cask Ale with anything like a decent hoppy bitterness. The ample use of East Kent Goldings is a bonus here – this is such an easy beer to drink, its 4.5% still needs to be treated with respect though, for like its bigger brother Chardonnayle, it creeps up on you!

Overall: I remember popping in O’Donoghues for a quick beer before planning to move onto another local Beer Bar. A friend of mine drank his Pint of Golden Lion much quicker than I did, and said to me “duz tha fansee anutha??” I paused and gulped the remains of my first Pint down “Aye lad, too bloody rart a will” was the response. Another seriously good tasty Pale Ale from Red Lion which has more of a classic hop character that the other Pale Ales from the Breweries fleet.

A damn fine Session Ale!!