Crouch Vale Brewers Gold

Brewed by Crouch Vale
Style: Golden Ale/Blond Ale
South Woodham Ferrers, England

Cask at the Three-Legged Mare, York. This is one of the best beers I’ve ever had. It’s a nice golden colour with a strong floral aroma. It’s extremely hoppy and flavourful with lots of citrus fruit. I love any beer that tastes this good while still being relatively low in ABV. Wonderful.

Cask @ Seven Stars, Holborn, London. Nose of hops, lemon, grapefruit and some sulphur. Pours an opaque lemon coloured beer with a light head. Mouthfeel is incredibly soft, taste is hoppy with a bitter grapefruit quality. Nicely balanced a great British beer.

Cask @ 3 Legged Mare. Bright, golden color with a bubbly white head. Spiciy, citric hoppy aroma, bright and perfumey. Malty, citric, mineral flavor with refreshing notes and a lasting finnish. Medium to light palate, lasting and vivid. Bright, refreshing and intense golden ale.

A real education for me, a great English beer. Hopefully I’ll find many more. Apparently this isn’t on good form, still very good to me. Nice light hoppy and very drinkable. I could drink this in one, very downable. It’s now drunk, I’ll certainly have more respect for English beer. I thought it was for bearded elbow patch wearing driving glove classic car fuckwits. Not so by this stuff.

cask @ The Eagle and Child, Oxford. Sunny yellow in colour with aromas of lemon rind, white pepper, and pale malt. Zesty and hoppy with notes of citrus and green grass. Tasted blind, I might have suspected a bit of coriander was in there, but that might just be my wacky palate. Any hint of malt that was there in the nose, drops away almost completely in the mouth. Medium bodied with firm (although somewhat subtle) bitterness. Very refreshing, and undoubtedly a quality beer, but I think their Amarillo was much better.

Bottle (500ml) shared with HogTownHarry & tupalev -- courtesy of HogTownHarry. Pours a clear pale gold with a spare diminishing white head -- looks pretty flat. Really mild aroma of floral and citrus hops. Flavour follows the aroma, it’s somewhat watery and consists mainly of light floral hops and citrus with an average bitter finish. Average bodied. I guess if you are in a U.K. hop-free wasteland this seems pretty good but it was pretty dull to me.

Shared with Hogtown harry and Blankboy, Harry’s bottle. Medium yellow, small cask like bubbles. Decent aroma - some mild hops, mild citrus. Good taste - nice light malt, assertive yet complimenting bitterness. Really nice golden ale with a bite. I could drink this all night long...

Bottle (500ml). Shared with blankboy and tupalev, my bottle. Wan, mostly clear pale gold pour, virtually no head. Mild aroma, floral almost perfume hops, light sweet grain - soft. Taste is also floral, but pungently so, more bitterness in the finish, very light grain malt. Watery body, fairly still, solid astringency - long lightly bitter finish - excellent, if light.