Greene King St. Edmunds Ale

Formerly brewed at Greene King
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Bury St. Edmunds, England

Good look to this brew. A nice sparlking golden color ale. Combination of malts thrown in and mingle well with the British bitter. A good straightforward ale.

Not remarkable, but very British and not overbearing like many American ales. It has that not unpleasant chalky taste that instantly pegs it as an English beer, as surely as if it was equipped with Lucas electrics and was wearing a bowler.

(13Mar2003--12oz.bottle) Deep copper in color, rocky head, coarse bubbles, mildly active carbonation. Barnyard aroma (not bad), caramel malty aroma. Bitter, dry, disappointingly thin, fairly flat. Lightly astringent. Seems more like a classic English bitter. Not great, but certainly not boring.

Grassy aroma, too many malts in the taste. Sweet caramel, to buttery popcorn, to dumpster juice, to corn, back to caramel. It's all malt. It's a malt circus. It's a malt marathon and the lead keeps changing. Hops, a light grassy, barely recognizable hops wins in the end, leaving a sweet sticky mess at the back of the throat.

As it sets in the pint glass a translucent burnished copper color, the head prodigious, spumous in texture, light tan in color and as it erodes the left over lace a nice coating upon the glass. The aroma of fresh cut grass, yeast, sweet malts, a different nose to be sure with the start sweet and loaded with malt, top is skimpy in feel. Finish is mildly acidic, the hops pleasant in their spicy presence, dry aftertaste. A classic English style ale, pleasant and unassuming, drinkable and meant to be easy on the palate, different and maybe not a beer many would like, guess what I’m saying is that its not overbearing like most American Pales, but still decent nonetheless.

Pours a nice copper with a decent head. Aroma of esters is overpowering. Esters and some diacetyl dominate the flavor profile with oak and vanilla tastes playing a part as well. Slightly hoppy finish, but no where near there old suffolk.

This has an odd odor, ahhh compost, decaying grass with sour milk. The taste is just as bad. Thankfully this is my last month with the Michael Jackson beer club and his crappy beers, the 1 in 4 chances of getting a good beer do not outweigh the bad ones you get which are more memorable than the good.

Initially pleasing with a warm hit of alcohol firmly rooted in a flavoursome and solid malt body with enough zippy hops to create an invigorating balance, this quickly slides into yet another strong sweet beer with not enough enduring character to want to drink more. Worth a ranking of 5 for the neat trick of creating such a quality gap between first delicious gulp and last unpleasant sip.