Greene King 1799

Formerly brewed at Greene King
Style: English Strong Ale
Bury St. Edmunds, England

(Bottle 50 cl) Beautiful amber with only a wee head. Lovely fresh, hoppy and floral aroma. Malty, full-bodied with notes of nuts and - again - flowers. Excellent indeed. 020700

Cask conditioned @ Queen Inn, Winchester. Perhaps my favourite Greene King beer (but thats not saying much). Good fruity woody hop aroma. Lightly malty with a full rounded body as a result of the dry hopping. Not bad and seems to mask the GK house character to a high degree.

Very beautiful amber ale. Hoppy, fresh, and nice aroma. Malty with notes of nuts and fruit. One of the best beers I have ever tasted. It’s a big mistake that they don’t do it anymore.

Hand pulled at the Anchor, Birmingham. (NB: the version I tried was 4.5%) Red/brown, with no head. Smooth, slightly choc, dark ale, perhaps like a Scottish example. Rich, slightly spicy malt flavour. Sweet, but slight pepper. Lovely stuff - so much better than the IPA!

Cask @ Dog & Bone, Gillingham. "Dry Hopped for a Fruity Flavour." Is the claim. Well there is a HUGE fruity flavour initially which inevitably reminds me of the good days of Bass, but the blackcurrant flavour begins to taste as fake as Ribenna. There is a deadness about the palate and flavour that could be a result of being too long in the cask, or just a feature of poor brewing. It's a dark bitter colour with froth on top. Acceptable, but after the initial hit, not that great.

Cask conditioned: A nutbrown beer with no head (cask). The aroma is pretty sweet with fruit notes. The flavor is very sweet of a good maltblend and with a really good hoppy bitterness - a great balanced beer.