Samuel Smiths Old Brewery Bitter (Cask)

Brewed by Samuel Smith
Style: Bitter
Tadcaster, England

Amber with a beige nitro head. Nothing in aroma. Sweet old woody hops. Slightly metallic bitterness. Shit.

Cask at Ye Olde Chesire Cheese in London. Clouded brown body with a small cream colored head. Nose is some fruit, wood and hops. Taste is light wood, spiced hops, cocoa, and muddied malt. Mouthfeel is moderate with mild bitterness. Finish is a fruit flavor (for some reason I picked up banana) with a hoppy note or two.

Draught in Cittie Of Yorke, London. March 2004. After long trip to London this pub really was my Holy Grail and this bitter - first beer on the table. It wasn’t quite complex, but I liked it for its refreshing sourness and creaminess.

cask conditioned at tadcaster pub next to the brewery: pulled this rate out of my journal of my travels to england. im definately going to have to try this again because i wasnt as down on the stuff as all the other rates. however, i am a yank and dont taste cask beers that often so , maybe a little more interesting and exciting to me then to someone in their home town. golden brown poor with a white thick head. slight hop fruit aroma. easy easy drinking. good session...

Very flat and uninspiring, BLAH! I was suprised the head lasted 5 minutes. Had a very strange color to it also

Cask Conditioned City of York in the big smoke. Puke, I thought I’d never stop. And they call this stuff beer? Get home and milk the cows.

Yep, I've done this in a couple of pubs. But it aint much. A bit flabby, though there's a wood smack that bodes well. Just doesn't quite do the job.

Coming from London, I have a bit of a down on Sam Smiths because a) they virtually stopped selling real beer in London and switched over to disgusting nitrokeg and b) took over a lot of classic pubs in London (e.g. the Princess Louise) that used to sell a good range of beer and restricted us to their own incredibly narrow product range (only one cask ale still produced). And this from a brewery that is supposedly staunchly traditional. On this instance, I was drinking it on its home turf in Yorkshire. Mid brown in colour. Served through a sprinkler with big head. Drinkable, but not really to my taste - too malty and not bitter enough for a bitter. Still, better than the nitrokeg. And the cheapest pint I have seen outside Wetherspoons in many a year - £1.22. Handpump, The Menston Arms, Menston, Yorkshire, September 2003