Caledonian Golden Pale

500ml bottle from Shropshire. Vintage 1997. Some carbonation, soon fading. Stale/vintage flavours and aroma- cardboard and stale bread and some mould. Few hops. Some soggy biscuit sweetness. Not a lot happening here.

My wife and I really disagreed on this. She liked it quite well, but I wasn’t so sure (of course I’m writing the review, so I win). It had lots of flavor in it, but it also had a skunky, musty side to it. A fairly standard english style bitter, a little too carbonated.

Cask Handpump at the Counting House, Glasgow (JDW) 07/07/2001 Golden coloured with some pale malt and sweetness.

Small head from a vigorour pour with large, fluffy,soapy bubbles on top. Grape and pear aroma with a bit of spices. Very interesting and good aroma. Some raisins in there also. Color is a medium orange/brown. Bitter, rusty, gritty flavor and mouthfeel. Not very plesant. Nice roasted character develops after the swallow. Thin body with some hops. Beer started off pretty damn good but fell flat on its face.

Hazy amber body topped by small beige head. Aroma is earthy, peach and light orange. Taste is earthy, medium sweet, light orange. Watery, undercarbonated medium body.

Bottled. Golden with a hint of orange. Nose is malty, some caramel notes, bit of zippy spice. Odd, odd, flavor. Definite maltiness, nutty quality I tend to associate with British ales. Has a very noticeable whiskey flavor, like a bottled boilermaker. While the abv is low, it actually seems to have a whiskey burn to it, very subtle, but definitely some odd harshness going on. Also quite yeasty in the finish, perhaps some kind of brewing problem here? Really enjoyed the creaminess of it, but too many odd things going on flavor-wise to really like this one.

Cask: Reminds me much of their IPA with its citrussy palate. A touch of spice and sweet malts add a nice level of complexity.