Paddy's Summer Ale
Paddy's Pub And Brewery

Pours a pale but dirty amber colour, opaque haze rather like Coopers Pale. Head is OK, with white hue, dense and slight pockmarks on top; retains really well. I like a good protein-rich beer, but the colour could be more appealing.

Quite sweet on the nose; nethinks the unwelcome influence of diacetyl is at work. Caramelised base malt, with big butterscotch edge. A hint of fresh-cut grass marking some hop character, but mostly too much sweetness; simple and quite bland.

Taste is alright, but still a big diacetyl hit. Cakey malt on the front develops big buttery notes on the mid that is slightly too sweet, before the late-mid where hops start to assert. Resinous and slightly grassy in character with a nod towards phenolic, they stop only just short of tasting chemical, but a definite medicinal bitterness lingers. Yeah, not a huge fan; a typical drinking ale for the market, but for a 'Summer' ale I'd like something fresher and fruitier, with a bash at a different hop type.

A nice full body to this beer, though, with only touches of fizz around the edge. Definitely has the feel of a nice protein-rich brew with real ingredients. It's the texture of a well-made beer; if only it tasted better.

Not offensive for its faults, it goes down fairly well. However, if I got drunk off this I'm pretty sure I'd be singing a different tune in the morning (something from Burt Bacharach's "album of me vomiting with a pounding headache", perhaps)