John Courage

Brewed by John Smiths (S&N, Heineken)
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Tadcaster, England

malty yeast nose. hops are very mild. eh, nothing special

Nice and cloudy, which makes me like it instantly. however, the flavor was kind of mild, and the malt that I found in the aroma never showed up in the rest of the beer. Drinkable, but something I’ll go out of my way for.

Amber, surprisingly cloudy for a non-wheat beer, neat mild fruity aroma, too bad the taste doesn’t match the smell, but it’s still quite nice, mildly bitter, full-flavored taste that’s not as mild as Newcastle Brown Ale

Not bad on tap. Good flavor, carbonation and the last pint from the pitcher tastes just as good as the first.

Just about everything about this beer can be summed up as: mild and nutty. Aroma, appearance (which isn’t exactly amber, but a cloudy orange-brown), flavor. Palate-wise, it’s intercourse in a boat. Overall, it’s really so mild and watery that, despite good marks for taste, it’s hard to treat this one as especially memorable. Nutty, but pretty thin and watery. Decent but really average. (For a second surprise in a row, it didn’t quite match up against Kingfisher lager.) English-style Pale? Go with Whitbread, and if that’s not available, Bass should suit you just fine. I should note, for what it’s worth: this does seem to improve a little as it warms.

Good clean tasting. Not complex but very drinkable. Very carbonated and the head is, well kinda pitiful.

It’s a shame. The first time I had this... it was the best I’d ever had. I told everyone how great it was. The next six pack was a flop. I thought it was a bad one, but the next two followed suit.

Not bad for a lager. I’m not really big on the ’clean’ taste in lagers, but this at least had a little bit of malt presence. Drinkable, but not overly impressive.