Ridgeway Bitter

Brewed by Hepworth
Style: Bitter
Horsham, England

Pours a beautiful golden color with a tall lasting froth. good residual lacing. Aromas of malted biscuits and citrus peel. Medium full nectar with ample residual effers. A solid malt backbone supports a defined bitterness with flavors of said citrus peel, caramel, and biscuits. The finish is bittered nicely leaving a lingering biscuit essence. This is a nice specimen living up to it’s style with a very focused bittering component and a fresh hop profile.

Golden body with a small, frothy, off-white head. The aroma is somewhat sweet and fruity, especially a note of orange and lemon. Also notes of grass and straw. Moderately malty — toasted grain. The flavor is moderately sweet to start and lightly bitter. The bitterness grows and lingers in the finish. Light body with a watery texture and lively carbonation. Dry finish. Just OK.

Pours dark golden with some bubbles and a large foamy beige head. Malty caramel aroma in a macro sort of way. Pretty bland for an English bitter. There’s not much of a caramel malt base that one would expect. A little fruity. Very thin body, nothing to it, waste of a nice looking bottle.

Bottle filtered, 500ml. Gold to amber, hazed with white head. Reasonable bottled low ABV bitter, not an easy thing to do. Fairly crisp light malt bodywith a reasonable show of fresh hops, lemony, straw and light. It’s ok.

Bottle out of the impressive BHS selection bucket (6 unsampled beers). Orange amber with a bilious halo of froth. The dull conditioning of an end of festival cask bitter. Juicy hop mustiness, pollen, egg and sulphur on the snout. Very English. Flavour comprises lemony hops, crackerbread malt and sulphur. Poorly conditioned, but enough flavour and character emerging to mark this out as a decent bitter.

Draught. Pours a nice deep amber colour with no head. Aroma of bitter hops and some fruits. The flavour has bitter hops with some caramel and fruits. Dry bitter finish.

Bottle. Amber body, big white head with good retention and lace, fruity, hoppy nose. Well balanced malt and hops, has that Maris Otter character, rather thin, quaffable.

This is bright golden, bubbly, with a thick active white head that foams up big and fast, regardless of efforts to keep it under control. The head lasts and stays thick to the end, leaving thick, nice lacing that covers the glass to the very end. The aroma is mild, faint yeasty bread and definite lemon peel citrus. The taste is bready malt up front with mild sweetness, rapidly giving way to mildly bitter hoppiness, and a hoppy, floral finish leaving a pleasant floral aftrertaste. It is crisp, with a fairly full yet lively feel. It is very refreshing, smooth, balanced, exceedingly drinkable and tasty. The first sip seems kind of disappointing, but its true full character takes over after that, making it very satisfying.