Chiltern 1,000th Gyle

Bottle, 25-03-06 picked up a mixed case from the brewery on Thursday, slowly getting through them. Hazy warm golden colour, small white head, and had a yeasty smell. Slightly citrus tang and a little hoppy, this didn’t really strike me as a barley wine and actually wasn’t as good as their ’Bodger’s’. Ok but not worth £6.95 or whatever it cost me a bottle.

London Gathering Nov 05: Hoppy nose, quite spicy actually. Suprising funky twist to the aroma too. Flavour is tart, yet dry and hoppy. Pine notes, with a yeasty finish. Lighter amber/dark gold in colour with a white short head. Not bad.

Bottle at the Nov 05 London gathering. The spiel and the packaging may be a bit over the top, but I kinda liked this one. Hazy amber in colour. Certainly not very English in style and rather hard to categorise. I’ll go along with the Belgian Saison comparisons. The pong is strong. Bags of yeast slightly funky, farmyard notes. Woody and slightly sour on the palate. Orange peel and chewy malt, with developing bitterness. Its certainly not the classy, refined production job that the brewery suggests, but its intriguing and certainly held my interest.

Bottled at the Chris_O Beer, Cheese and Curry powwow. A hazy dark gold coloured beer with a whitish head. The aroma is slightly sour and funky. It has peppery notes and some sharp lemon. The taste is sourish and also a little salty and there are some really bitter notes. An interesting beer which seems to encompass a plethora of different tastes. Very Belgian in style, like a saison and certainly no Barley Wine whatever the brewer says.

Nov, 2005. Kilburn Palace Bottle Fest. Musty, old and yeasty. Bottled 18 months ago - BBE 2007. This might be the age at which this beer should not be drunk. Old enough to have developed significant off flavours, but too young to have mellowed everything out into a sweet sherry. This has bitterness without aromatics or distinction. And the malt simply offering up an old spice. Odd and very wrong. Default score given.