Coniston Bluebird XB

Brewed by Hepworth
Style: Golden Ale/Blond Ale
Horsham, England

500 ML Bottle-Poured a reddish copper color w/a moderate off white head. Roasted nutty aroma. Flavors of roasted malt, caramel, nuts, & barley. Had a long dry bitter finish. This was labeled as an English ale, & I would say that is correct. Way too red & Bitter to be a Golden/Blond. It was quite good though. If you like that style-English Ale/ESB, I would definatly recomend it.

Bottle. Clear golden pour with an average frothy white head that diminished slowly with fair lacing. Moderate hoppy complex aroma. Light to medium body with a smooth texture. Light balanced flavor with a small bitter finish of moderate duration. Drinkable with a soft ending. Shared with my Dilly Deli freind, Peanut.

Hazy golden, fairly large head, decent lacing. Aroma is bread, light fruits, grass, some aged hops. Flavor was quite bitter for a blonde (which I wouldn’t have guessed) with moderate carbonation and acidity as well. Wasn’t wild about a few things here, but it was still solid for a ’golden’ ale.

Bottle conditioned. Golden colour with a slim white head. Aroma of hops, citrus, pine and spices. Nice hoppy taste with balancing malts. Medium mouthfeel lightly carbonated. Very drinkable. Very good.

Bottle from Super Saver. I’ve always thought that beers from this brewer were very well made, and this one is no exception. The pour is medium copper with 1-finger off-white head. Aroma of huge dry hops, citrus, some tannins and subdued caramel malt. Tastes extremely hoppy in the piney resiny sense, bitter, with some tannin and fruit notes. This one was smooth on the palate, and had enouigh malt notes to prevent it from becoming overly cloying or dry or resiny and piney. I’ll be buying this one again.

I had this one while in Westermere, the Lake District in a cozy little restaurant called the Spinners Wheel. I have largely forgotten the details on this beer, but I do remember liking it a lot with my venison sausage lunch plate. MMMMMmmmmmm!

500ml bottle from Hog’s Back Bottle Shop. I know I’ve had the original version before because my brother bought me it and a Bluebird glass for Christmas last year. But I failed to rate it. Oops. This is golden with a thin white head. Nice Mount Hood hop aroma. Some pale malt and some citrus fruit aroma. Good in mouth with nice malts balancing the hops. Nicely balanced juicy malt and then hoppy, but not too hoppy, finish. Extremely drinkable. Would like to have this on cask in a pub on an autumn day after a walk and I have a feeling I would sink at least half a dozen pints of this. Not exceptional, but really drinkable.

16.9oz, no date. Pours a hazy golden with a moderate, creamy head. Aroma is light sweet pine and spicy hops, biscujits. Pretty decent, though not very strong. The flavor just isn’t very good. The pine is there again, but then there is a dirty yeast with some bad tang that takes over. Bleh. Dirty yeast aftertaste. Light bodied, moderate carbonation. I had this a year or so ago, and I thought that it was pretty decent. Not anymore.