Banks’s Fine Fettle

Formerly brewed at Banks’s (Marstons plc)
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England

Admirably hoppy, tea-coloured pint with some sourish grapefruit hoppiness in the nose. Musty, leafy, aromatic and bitter with creamy malt afters. Only really let down by its generic, gas-pumped, best-a-man-can-get artificially foaming ’smoothness’.

Cask. Hazy red amber. Slightly nutty fruity malt base, hoppy flowery. Quite dry mouthfeel.

Cask at Charlies Bar, Copenhagen, RBESG, August 2006. Bright mid brown colour, with a thin but persistent white head. Fresh and fruity. Light hop presence. Nicely balanced and easy drinking. Better than I was expecting from a Banks beer that had travelled halfway across Europe.

(Cask, The Wharf, Aalborg) - Bright orange colour. Light, fruity hop nose. The taste has a slight malty sweetness, combined with a dry floral hoppiness, -the aftertaste fades pretty quickly though....

[Cask at Charlie’s Bar, Copenhagen] An orange beer with a thin beige head. The aroma is sweet with some cask metal notes combined with notes of malt and fruit. The flavor is sweet malty with notes of fruit and metal.

Musty, floral, fruity aroma with some herbal, earthy hops notable. Clear, dark copper coloured body with a low but lasting, fine bubbled, off white head that recedes to cover and coats the glass. Moderately bitter, fruity flavour has plenty of subdued earthy, herbal, floral hops, fair bitterness and a light note of alcohol in the finish. Medium body with moderate carbonation and smooth, soft texture. Definitely a drinker’s drink. Sampled on cask at Charlie’s Bar in Copenhagen.

(cask at Charlie’s in Copenhagen) Clear amber body with watery off-white head. Aroma is medium sweet, caramel, some floral, light earthy. Taste is medium sweet, caramel, buttery, some floral, light earthy. Watery light-medium body.