Coniston Bluebird Bitter (Bottle)

Brewed by Hepworth
Style: Bitter
Horsham, England

Dark golden. Hoppy aroma of crackers, grass and pepper. Light bodied with a harmonius flavour of white chocolte and dry soily hops. Fairly light bodied. Dry, oily finish of soil, grass and orangfes,. Quite nice session drink

Had this at a beer and cheese tasting. It was paired with Sharpham Rustice - Devon. Not much in th eway of a head or lacing. Aroma is good with a good bit of citrus hops. This would make a decent session beer on a hot summer day.

Bottle. Brown colored beer. Nice creamy head with medium duration. Taste is both bitter and sweet.

Dull orange pour with a creamy, short lived head. The nose is nice and citrusy, but with an undercurrent of fresh ground spearmint that makes it really different. The body is delicate and clean, allowing all the flavors to really distinguish themselves. Slight caramel back gives support to the perfumey hops. An apple fruitiness is present throughout as well. This is a refreshing change from all the hard hitting American pales and IPAs I’ve been torturing my tongue with lately. Nothing groundbreaking, just refreshing and drinkable with really clean flavors.

The aroma was pine-spruce. The head was average and white in color, the lacing was good and the head was mostly diminishing. The body was bottle conditioned (it said so), the body was cloudy and the hue was orange. The initial flavor was moderate bitter and the finish was a light ot moderate bitter, the finish was average. The body was medium, the carbonation was soft.

(draft @ The Old Toad - Rochester, NY) Copper in color with a nice amount of slightly off-white head. Aroma is a nice and gentle mix of caramel, malts and some hops. Not as hoppy as I thought it would be. The taste is exactly the same. It begins with a slight hoppy taste that goes smoothly to a malty and sweet middle. The finish has a touch of caramel, raisin and some apples with hops at the very end. Slightly bitter aftertaste.

This brew is probably a good example of the style but I wasn’t overly impressed. It had a faint mostly fruit and malt aroma. The hops come out much more in the flavor than the aroma with a nice understated bitter back. There is a nice balance of the fruity raison like malts and the hop bitterness. The appearance and body were the most disappointing. It was very watery and very pale in color. It almost looked like a pint of applejuice. As it says on the label, it is a "fine session ale" but probably not much more.

A nice brew much akin to Old Speckled Hen though not as powerful. A wonderful malty aroma, a lovely malty biscuity clean taste. Nice stuff.