Crouch Vale Brewers Gold Extra

On draught at the Swan in the Rushes, Loughborough. Extremely aromatic, hoppy aroma. Lots of different fruit flavours. Great looking pale golden beer. Great mouthfeel. This is a fantastic beer.

Cask Conditioned at the Bedford Beer Festival 2004 (Wednesday Session). Wonderfully fruity & bitter beer. Superbly hoppy.

Cask Conditioned at The Cuckoo’s Nest Gawcott, Bucks.
Beer tasting can be so subjective, many factors can supplement the way you ‘feel’ about a beer, mood, company, place, time and even the weather. So on a fine sunny Saturday afternoon we approached a highly recommended pub by a slightly eccentric friend with great hopes. As we opened the door and the light flooded into the dark interior, instinct told us that this could be a rare moment of perfection, that and the pump clip pronouncing that Crouch Vale had produced an extra version of one of the Beers of Banbury Festival. This was June and the beer is a seasonal for dark and rainy February, we didn’t ask! As I ordered (I held the kitty, a British thing I think) the radio from a far room started playing the seventies smoocheroo Barry White. [we got it together did’nt we nobody but you and me we got it together baby] Four Pints of the Crouch Vale please Landlord, I pronounced. [my first, my last, my everything and the answer to all my dreams you’re my sun, my moon, my guiding star my kind of wonderful, that’s what you are] With a touch of anticipation the first of the light brown beers filled the straight pint glass. The head cleared to a pale white smoothie, this looked good anyway. [i know there’s only, only one like you theres no way they could have made two you’re you’re all i’m living for your love i’ll keep for evermore, you’re the first my last my everything] The cool liquid was raised to my lips and a burst of fragrant hops splashed across my tongue, a crisp grapefruit tangy dry flavour filling the mouth. [in you i’ve found so many things a love so new only you could bring can’t you see if you, you’ll make me feel this way you’re like a first morning dew on a brand new day] In charges the balancing malt sweetness, but still the vital crispness holds on allowing the alcohol to add nose to the beer. This is Elysium and Paradise together and we are sharing it with Bazza. [i see so many ways that i can love you till the day i die........ you’re my reality yet i’m lost in a dream you’re the first my last my everything] Back to reality, beer tasting is subjective, I will hold off giving perfect marks but by heck it got close.

Ah! Now we’re talking. Had this cask conditioned as we say, in the Fat Cat. Wow! Hops galore! All the colours of the rainbow, and then some. Fruit upon fruit upon delicious fruit that makes your mouth water and dribble run down your beard (if you had one). Blows your socks off its so wonderful.

Cask Conditioned to Perfection. Modern bitter with that influence from our comrades across the pond. Sparks and apples and juice all over the place like a good orgy.

Hand pulled at the Bartons Arms, Aston, Birmingham. Boom! A blisteringly good beer! I don't know too much about Barry White, but I can say that after a hard hour of cricket practice, with an injured shoulder, this was a pint to lift the spirits, and no mistake. Deliciously crisp, refreshing, bitter and hoppy, with plenty of shimmering fruit flavours: banana, lemon, orange. Superbly balanced, slowly revealing it finery, like a theatre curtain. Soapy head, dark blond colour, and an aroma of springtime - or maybe that was the scent of leather on willow...

White Cliffs Winter Ales Fest. Gravity. O yes! O by the hairs on my scalp, my toes and every part in between, this is a fine ale! A damned fine ale. Even before the liquid touches your lips you know you are about to encounter top quality - those hoppy, fresh, fragrant fumes envelope and seduce and excite. And then the golden nectar hits the mouth and you lose all control of your senses and you just say the most basic and babyish of things - "Oo!" "Ah!" "Mmmmm!" and you nod and smile at those around you. Putting such a beer experience into words on your notepad seems so mundane and nothing can really capture the heady rush and deep pleasure of this gift from the gods. "A pale malt beer with gentle yet freshly invigorating hops like a summer garden," doesn't quite do it. To borrow a few words from Bazza White quoted in imdownthepub's comments: "You are my first, my last, my everything and the answer to all my dreams. You're my sun, my moon, my guiding star my kind of wonderful, that's what you are."

Hand pulled from the cask. Stronger than the regular brewers gold this goes a notch higher in every respect and is very exciting.