RCH Tender Loving Care (TLC)

Bottle. A bit lively upon opening.Soon calmed down. Slightly cloudy with some bitterness although not a lot Trace of hops as well. Pleasant session bitter.

Cask-conditioned at The Castle, London EC4 11/1/08. A decent amber bitter with a sweet malt and hay aroma, followed by fruity flavours and a grassy hop finish. Good.

Cask gravity at Rare Breeds BF 2007. Copper, lasting bubbly off white head. Decent standard bitter. Fairly fruity malt aroma. Tasty, good hop finish. Excellent standard bitter.

Cask conditioned @ Guide Dog, Soton. Brown sugary and malt. A bit bland initially and than a decent bitter finish.

Cask Handpump at the Crescent, Salford 27/02/2004 Amber golden coloured with fruity and hoppy aromas. Bitter slightly wheaty flavoured finish.

Bottle conditioned. Clear amber coloured with a slim white head. Aroma is citrus and other fruits and background malt. Quite a fruity, acidic and hoppy taste. Medium bodied, quite clean and crisp and thirst quenching. Pretty good.

500ml bottle (bottle conditioned) from Richs Cider Farm Shop, July 2005. Although it wasn’t a gusher, this beer was clearly over-primed. It poured with a massive off-white head that wouldn’t disperse and sat like a Mr Whippy ice cream above the top of the glass. Even with a very careful pour I was only able to get about a third beer into the glass. Impossible to get any aroma through that. It looks to be a copper coloured beer, but all the gassy activity had churned it up into a murky soup. In the end I was forced to resort to scooping the froth off to be able to drink it at all. When I did manage to taste the beer it was rather thin and a bit lemony but had too much of a sour, acidic edge. I’ve enjoyed a number of bottle conditioned RCH beers but something went horribly wrong with the bottling on this one. I’ll give it a another go if I get the chance.