Bottle. Amber, moderate white head and gentle condition. Low hop and caramel aromas, soft sweet malt and low flowery hop in the mouth and a developing hop bitterness over gentle sweetness in the finish.

Cask conditioned @ SouthWestern Arms, Soton. As others have commented not really gold - it was a shade darker than the Hartleys XB (a traditional bitter colour) I had before it. Slightly juicy peppery hops with lots of heavy malt. Hints of toffee in the mouth and sweet malts. Hops return with light bitter bite in the finish after disappearing fairly quickly. Lack of hops in the middle of the beer and the overly heavy malts spoilt this for me.

Hand pulled at the Bartons Arms, Birmingham. Dark gold, with a fast dissapating head. Sweet beginning turns to a slightly murky metal tang, with a smudge of choc. Slippery and fairly dense. Reasonable, but lacks sparkle.

Cask at Out of the Vaults, Lecester, RB crawl 2005. Amberish bitter, scant head, very average, just enough malt action to prevent it from being anonymous but no great shakes.

Cask Conditioned & on Hand pump at The Alex in Derby on the 22nd Jan 2005 No Sparkler Mid coppery brown colour (as chris o says, odd as it’s called "gold") Nice & bitter & dry. Hoppy, bready but a bit bland in the finish...