John Smiths Bitter / Extra Smooth

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

Large can. Nutty brown beautiful color, white thick head. Nutty,caramel aromas. Nuts and roasted malt taste. Dry finish. Not bad.

Extra Smooth nitroed @ the Mitre, London WC2. Amber coloured. Unclear. Creamy beige head. Aroma is light herbal and fruity. Quite bland. Flavour is Herbal hoppy and sweet. Quite dry. Is thin bodied .Very bland. Had the Original bitter canned (5-3-4-2-8)Amber coloured. Clear. Off white small head. Fruity and metallic aroma. Canny and sweet flavoured. Light bodied. Fruity metallic end.

I cracked this in honour of the England cricket team’s fight-back on day one of the Third Ashes Test. However, toasting England with this is about as flattering as toasting Australia with Fosters or the US with Bud. This is as insipid as the English performance at Brisbane, rather than today’s stirring show by the bowlers. Poured into a pint mug, this swirling nitrogenated soup eventually cleared to reveal a bright copper-coloured ale with the thick caffe creme head typical of these cans. Nitrogenated cans always seem like the beer world equivalent of another type of fake can - breast implants. Sure they look good if you’re willing to overlook the technological sleight of hand. But wouldn’t you rather have the real thing? Give me a sudsy pint of cask ale, any day. Nitro covers a multitude of flaws, including lack of body, taste and aroma. This one smelled plain peculiar - Nutella mainly - hazelnuts and drinking chocolate, with faint canned pear juice. What it didn’t smell like was cask bitter. In the mouth, this is very thin with that artificial nitro creaminess - like a skinny bloke in an inflated Superman costume. First sip offers some nice ashen, burnt notes that soon evaporate. There’s a vague fruitiness and faint malt nuttiness but no real mid-palate. Moderately bitter and a bit cloying towards the end. Ultimately, this is as bland as the name ’John Smith’ implies. (440ml nitro widget can from Liquor on Parade. Best before 31/5/07)

This is a truly beautiful beer in the glass. A dark amber color and a thick inch of white head. However it smells bitter and tastes the same way: which completely kills any flavor. Also, I don’t know if I could ever get used to the overall flatness of this type of English beer. For those who like English bitters this might be a hit, but for me the experience isn’t enjoyable.

50 cl can. Very bland and uninteresting bitter.Sweet, not balanced between malt and hops. Thin and watery. Amazing that this should have a large share of the market!

Draught, announced as cask, 3.8 % ABV Small, very dense & on-cask like head, dark red-amber beer. Served to cold too be smelt. CASK, they said? Sweet, meaty esters; young beer, flavour of grass / garden herbs. Warming up, almondy. Light body and that’s putting it mildly. Poor beer, certainly not worthy of cask.

I don’t get these beers. This reminded me of Tetley’s which is a lifeless, watery grave of a beer and this is no different. I had the nitro-widget can, so the appearance was the best thing about the beer. Aroma was....was....was. Hell, there was no aroma. Appearance was copper in color, great looking head. Watery in the mouth, nearly zero flavor. What I could pick up was a slight malty flavor. I got zero bitterness out of this "bitter". Perhaps my palate is ruined for all eternity with the hoppy creations on the West Coast. This beer just didn’t do it for me.

This beer makes me ashamed to be English - only northerners can drink rubbish like this and convince themselves that it’s good. What a disgrace! Brown in colour and absolutely no taste (which is what those that drink it have). I can say no more.