Duchy Originals Organic Ale

This is a nice, solid, and very satisfying & refreshing English bitter/ESB. It is amber with a medium, dense light tan head that slowly dissipates to a ring and wispy top. The aroma is rich, toasty grain, toffee, flowery hops with a pine element, and toasted bread. The taste is a solid bitter/beer character, hard to pin down otherwise in the way I like bitter. It has elements of toffee, earth/leaves, both very light, in a body that is mostly toasty malty grain and piney hops, with a clean, crips, smooth bitterness taking over after a second, followed by a nice lightly toasted grain finish. It is crisp and clean, with great bittersweet balance, and a fruity hint. It’s a little less dry and bitter than Black Sheep Ale, but also a tad less clean and aromatic.

Pours bright amber into an English pint. Head quickly subsides with no lacing to skim surface. Caramel aromas. Sweet cookie dough from front to back with a lasting bitter hop finish.

Bottle: Copper pour with a consistnt white head. Smells of old boiled vegetables, light sweet caramel back, and lots of metallic character. Somewhat thin in body, with a grassy flavor, along with old vegetables and an underlying sweet malt touch. The finish is full of metallic bitterness. Not that good.

500 ml bottle from Bevmo. Hazy copper brown with a slight fizzy head. Caramel and barley aroma. Sweet slightly tangy bread taste with a mildly bitter finish.

Very strange nose, I sensed malts and hops but found aromas of grass, hay, wet leather. The taste was malty sweet, with hints of hay/grasses, and no finish.

Flaske. Lettere mørkerødlig, og meget domineret af malt. Ekstrem drikbar med en meget lille snert af bitterhed til sidst. Udemærket af en økologisk øl, med et håb om at der snart kommer mere af den skuffe.

500ml Bottle: Didn’t realize this was an ESB when I picked it up, although the picture of hops on the label should have given it away. Poured cloudy and orange, a decent white head. The aroma was surprising, very sweet. The taste was much lighter than I’d expected from the aroma, very pale, hints of citrus and a good serving of hops. It’s well balanced, pretty good.

Bottle from Sainsburys - Malty and hoppynose, caramel hue. No carbionation. Foaming head quickly dissipating. Light body. Quite nicely hopped. with a short bitter sweet finish.