John Smiths Winners Tipple

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

Bottle. A dark brown colour with a thin white head. Not much aroma, and the taste is sweet with a bitter finish. The beer is drinkable, but would not buy any more.

Bottle from sainsburies. Aroam is butterscotch and caramel and sweet brown ale malts, but not offensive. Taste is similar and i drank this quite plesently, though wouldnt buy another bottle.

Bottled, pasteurised, 500ml from Morrisons, Banbury. Chestnut, carbonated with dull head. I don’t know, you launch a new beer into the supermarkets, not a cheap thing to do these days, the package looks fine, you buy your shelf space and then you deliver a product that is as poor as the rest of your range, surely the Headbrewer (if there is such a thing in these breweries now) has some pride. Cardboardy, adjuncty, some malt, caramel as a filler. It’s not good and thats a real shame.

Bottle. Boiled sweets. Few hops. Cardboard. Industrial carbonation. Not promising. But it’s drinkable enough - and, there’s a sort of bitterness which emerges late in the swallow. OK I suppose. If I’d won the Grand National I’d have cracked open a decent beer. As I lost I cracked open this one.

Bottle. Malty sweet caramel with nutty tang to it. Minimal hops.Slightly boiled feel. metallic carbonation. As poor as I expected.

Not bad for John Smith’s. A dark brown colour with a very malty, earthy sort of taste. A bit hoppy and quite syrupy.

Bottle. Dark brown with a beige head. Aromas are dark syrup malts with berries and banana. Earthy with some herbal notes. Flavours are thin malts with vimto fruitiness. Quite dusty on the palate. Lacks body.

500ml bottle from Sainsbury. Ruby/chestnut colour with lasting beige head. Bit of yeast, bit of fruit, bit of dryish malt on the aroma. Some yeast, acidic nature in mouth. Decent yeasty character, some hop sting on end, helped by metallic carbonation. Yes the yeast is good, some ok fruit, malts could be firmer. Hops are a little understated. Malts a bit syrupy, but got good fruit. Didn’t expect much, but the yeast is decent. Still not great.