Banks’s Original (Cask)

Brewed by Banks’s (Marstons plc)
Style: Bitter
Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England

1. Cask Handpump at the Beer House, Manchester 20/07/2002 Mid brown coloured with some alcohol present. Smooth malt finish. 2. Cask Handpump at the Duke Of Portland, Lach Dennis 30/05/2009 Malt aroma. Amber coloured and smooth on the palate with some fruit flavour. A little dryness in a crisp full malt finish.

On tap. Pours a coppor/red colour with almost no head and little carbonation. Very aromatic and gentle smell, nice full and mouthfilling on the palate. Can distinguish maple syrup and raisins in the flavour. Very nice and smooth beer.

The Market Vaults, Tamuff. Atypically bright, reddish and shining for a mild. Draped with lace all the way. Heady Everards-like aroma of apple strudel, sultana fruit and aniseedy spice. Malted milk sweetness, sulphur, caramel and raisiny dried fruit and spice in the mouth. Fresh and gentle malt loveliness. Soft and sulphury, with impressive complexity at the ABV. Unputdownable, and slightly delicious.

Pale for a bitter, a light amber colour, but topped by a firm off-white coloured ale. Kinda uninteresting toasty nose which borders the roast at times. It seems to work hard at avoiding any kind of yeastiness and thus remains quite plain, bready, uniform and linear. Yawn.

June, 2004 Princess Louise, Croyden. Attracted to this pub because of the phrase "guest beers" in the current GBG, I find just the usual suspects. But I tuck into the pub regular, Banks Original, because the only previous time I had this was on keg, and now is a chance to try it from the cask. A dark amber colour, with some toffee on the nose. It’s soft and fruity with a medium palate leaning toward sweet in the finish, but light enough to give a dry impression. Served in excellent condition - I can see why some people fall in love with this. [3.2]
June, 2007 Mermaid, Welshpool Soft with gentle, lingering English earthy hops which grow and swell. Malt is thin with a touch of steel. An enjoyable drink of moderate character that could grow on one. Easy to confuse with Banks’s Bitter, especially as this one is marketed as a mild, but is slightly hoppier. I had to get another half of each because I thought I had got them mixed up. The Original is slightly darker, dryer and more bitter than the Bitter. [3.1]

[CASK: Hart and Trumpet, Gobowen, Shropshire 19/08/06] Similar to Bankes Bitter, not muct to rave about. A OK tasting ale but nothing exciting. Bland and uninspiering. The one i tried was 3.8% so slightly better than 3.5!

[Cask] An example of amber mild: quite low roastiness, light, round, low bitterness; not bad and in some way "original" but a bit bland

Handpump Worcester City FC every season since 1988. Like the Banks bitter, this is another regular that I’ve had that not got around to rating. Amber coloured, easy drinking beer bit nutty and malty and creamy tasting. Another beer that is worshipped around the Worcester and above into it’s heartland its hard to dislike what is almost always a consistenly average, perfectly acceptable, decent enough beer, if there is one thing that I can say about Banks that is very positive I can barely recall having to take a pint back.