Greene King Fireside (Cask)

Brewed by Greene King
Style: Bitter
Bury St. Edmunds, England

Casked. Amber colour, mediumsized head. Aroma bitterish hoppy with fruity hints. Flavour is fruity, hoppy and of fresh wood (newly cut wood). Wellbalanced and smooth, but quite one-dimensional and standard bitter...

Uninspiring. I think this was past its best. Aroma was malt dominated, a bit over roasted. Taste is similar, with a slight sourness, near no hops character. Flat and lifeless.

Cask conditioned at a Wetherspoons. Red to brown with white head. A pretty beer, bright with a malty aroma. Gadzooks no hint of the GK Tea hop, this is a fruity, malty, slightly sweet beer, ripe plums comes to mind. Thinnish, but quite drinkable, an enjoyable beer.

Cask (handpump), Knights Templar, Chancery Lane. Deep russet colour, with a thin beige head. Usual Wetherspoon temperature masks the aroma most effectively. Very fruity - mainly berries, but some cherry too - with some oddly dry toffee. The mouthfeel is a touch too light to carry the flavour. Not bad, but not really a winter warmer (which I presume is the intention). Greene King take my prize for the most useless large brewery website. Lots of financial information, of course. What it says about its beers is almost entirely limited to its major brands and the seasonals aren’t mentioned at all. Says a lot about Greene King’s priorities..

Cask conditioned - handpump - Turf Tavern Oxford. An amber coloured beer with an off white head. The aroma is fairly thin but there are some fruity malts. The taste has some malty warmth and some caramel. An uninteresting fruitiness and an underdeveloped finish make the experience unremarkable.

<a href=http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/39/397 No 2 Baker Street, Stirling Poor condition. Vinegary. A malty beer of little noticable character. Default score.

Cask. handpump at the Crown Charlton-on-Otmoor, 10-11-06. Poured dark brown with a head that didn’t hang about for too long, malty beer with some sweetness and a nice touch of fruitiness. Better than many of theirs but not one that I would particularly like a night on.

Cask at the Nascot Arms, Watford. Red brown in colour with a loose white head; aroma of well roasted malts and caramel; rich, roasted malt flavour with some nuts and sour purple fruit; dry finish. A warming and pleasant pint on a cold winters evening.