Duchy Originals Organic Ale

Brewed by Wychwood (Refresh UK - Marstons plc)
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Witney, England

Bottle from Party Source. Poured dark amber color with an average fizzy white head that mostly lasted with good lacing. Light sour citrus and sweet malt aroma. Light to medium body with a dry texture. Medium sweet flavor with a medium balanced finish of moderate duration.

Bottled. A mid brown coloured beer with a slight of white head. The aroma is fruity and malty and very English. The taste has good body, nice fruity malts and a good bitter character. There is a little juicy hop late on. Quite bready in places and suprisingly good.

Bottle. Nut coloured with no great amount of foam. Aromas are floral hops and spice with some nutty malts - quite light. Flavours are more malty with caramel and some roast character. Dry and bitter. Quite warming on the finish despite its alcohol content. Slightly thin on the palate, if there was a cask version it would be quite nice.

Bottle from Super Saver. Medium brown pour with aroma of caramel, toffee, and dark fruit. Tastes caramel malty, with some bitter hops, brown sugar, and cacao. Gets more bitter and vinous as it warms.

Amber beer with a nice lively, but small head. Good aroma of malt, apples and grass. Initially round flavour with a strong bitterness in the aftertaste, thanks to the good hops.

A hazy dark amber ale with a thin off white head. Light herbal hops and malt in aroma, faint. In mouth, good crisp ale with good resinous hops, light caramel, and light mineral notes, herbaceous qualities. Nice ale. Bought at LCBO. BB 5/12/08.

Bottle. Head is initially small, frothy, off-white, mostly diminishing. Body is medium amber. Aroma is lightly malty (toasted grain), lightly hoppy (apricot), trace yeast (dough), with notes of metal shavings. Flavor is lightly to moderately sweet, lightly acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is lightly sweet, lightly acidic, moderately bitter, husky. Medium body, watery texture, lively carbonation, metallic. Surprisingly bad. Highly metallic with a terrible aftertaste, boring aroma.

500 ml bottle purchased from City Market, Burlington (Feb 2006). Served a bit above cellar temp in a Sam Smiths pint. Wow, a new beer on the shelves that’s not from New England! Those in areas less benighted for bottles can appreciate how exciting this might be, and whoah! it’s something I haven’t even heard of! I look it up...oh, crestfallen. Wychwood. Sigh. Well, let’s have a go anyway....

Pours very, very clear light amber with no trace of yeast visible, though the website implies that it’s bottle-conditioned....a decent bit of off-white head, dies very quickly into a couple of millimeters of coating....nose is really indistinct, just hints of dry caramel and a faint touch of oak....once in the mouth, it’s actually quite pleasant and quaffable, with a mild hint of bitterness growing towards the dry (and unfortunately, slightly metallic) finish....oaky and smooth, lightly sweet at the front, just a nice pleasing full but never heavy mouthfeel....it’s no great shakes overall, but better than I had expected from this brewer.