Greene King Dallaglios Heroes (Pasteurised)

Bottle. Golden with a thin head. Aromas are lots of caramel with citrus and toast. Buttery. Flavours are sweet lemon and caramel with slick butter and slightly medicinal notes. Has a prickly sparkle. Dull.

Really faint aroma of hops, some sourness in the nose too. Looks very below average, no head, weak colour. Tastes weak, slightly hoppiness, slightly watery finish. Nothing special in this specially brewed brew.

Concentrated, unmistakeable aroma of rabbit piss. Trust me, I know what it smells like. Fermented grass, hay, human sweat, UREA. Lagery orange pour with a thin dying head; some compensating Lucozade, honey and orange warming up in the aroma once the head’s gone. Doughy wet sog, aspirin, paper, watery thin apple. Only redeeming feature is that casky soft vanilla thing even GKs worst bottled beers have got. But I’m afaid I can’t get past the piss-sodden wood shavings. Untypically lagery, typically useless clear-bottled GK effort. Sink got some.

500ml bottle from Sainsbury. A light coloured ale, bordering on lager. It’s clean with some light fruit and few hops - though some aromatics do linger pleasantly. If you want a lager type beer- that is something fairly light and clean - but at a lower abv with some body, then this works. Slight toffee notes. Not offensive. Slips down easy, but is not remarkable.

Discontinued in Sainsbury’s for 90p a 500ml bottle, and 4 for the price of 3 - if you like it, fill your boots! Bland and insipid, a bit like the man himself. Little head and that disappears fast, unlike the man himself. Slight but pleasant aroma, unlike him. Too fizzy. Really more like a lager than most ales. As a lager it would be okay, but as an ale, it is rather poor.

500ml bottle from Sainsbury. Clear gold, thin white. Some GK yeast on the aroma. Some rubberised pasteurisation too. Some moderate hop on the aroma. too. It’s lacks some punch later on due to the fact that it is pasteurised. Starts alright, but then rather dies into a citrusy blandness. It’s a good thing Lawrence was a better player than this is a good beer, or we wouldn’t have won the Rugby World Cup. Dull, but with some decent citrus flavours.

Bottle. Clear bottle. Typical GK signature flavour. The initial hoppiness fades into total blandness.Oh dear!

Apparently proceeds support injured Rugby players. Gold with a white head. Toast and marmalade malt aroma. Whatever taste there is disappears in a metallic storm of fizziness. Some biscuity malt eventually emerges. Slight bitterness. You have to look pretty carefully on the bottle to see The GK logo.