Samuel Smiths Organic Ale

Brewed by Samuel Smith
Style: Bitter
Tadcaster, England

Bottled, pasteurised, 500ml. Orange brown with slight head. Quite flat for a pasteurised bottle, big caramel, toffee notes on a dry malty base, little hop impact for me. Dry and bitter on the finish, but its all a little underwhelming. Below average.

Some airy toffee to the nose... Pours virtually headless orange amber into the glass. Light caramels upfront, alongside tart fruity esters. Lots of yeast and bready/doughy notes in the mid-palate, leading to the dry biscuit finish. Not bad for a bitter/ESB, but not extremely complex, the mouthfeel is a little thin, and overall, it’s a little lackluster for me.

Back in the old days (a little over a year ago) in NC before we "popped the cap" and turned into high gravity junkies, I would drink English ales like they were going out of style. This one was never one of my regulars but my new bottle cap collecting hobby made purchasing this beer a must. Pretty orange color with an attractive white head. On smelling this sucker I first notice a pear like scent along with a bit of butterscotch. The flavor continues to be fruity with a bit of butterscotch and faint hop bitterness at the end. Simple and easy to drink with just enough flavor for you to call this "good beer". I’m glad that breweries like Samuel Smith exist.

Bottle 48F Pint. Slightly sweet toffee aroma, slight citrus in the hops. Nice clean and slightly warm smell. Pours a deep gold color with very little head that is perhaps white, Rich taste, slight tangyness, medium maltiness, a bit bitter, and a bit creamy. Quite a bit of flavor going on in this brew. Really not too bad at all, a bit bitter but nothing fierce, light malts easily drinkable. Once again the lads and Samuel Smiths have performed nicely. Lighter mouthfeel and vigerous carbonation.

Bottle.

Pours a clear orange amber with a rich if modestly-sized white head.

The aroma offers a gentle fruity sweetness and a hint of grassy hops; the flavor is a lovely, gently sour, grassy hops with light-toffee and cracker straight-ahead bitters flavor that I associate with the innumerable pints I enjoyed during a two-week visit to Britain several years ago. I also appreciate the change of pace after the string of kick-you-in-the-teeth PacNW IPAs that I’ve been drinking lately.

So - relative straightforwardness notwithstanding - I enjoyed this one a great deal. 9/5/07 - Very similar impressions upon a revisit in Santa Barbara. Might go 7/3/7/4/15=3.6.

Light sweetness, tangy. Minty hop flavor profile. head is a lacey and light foam. Color is cloudy light brown, reminds me of Anchor Steam a bit. Nose is sweet and metalic.

Pours with a brilliantly clear, perfectly red-copper color. It is topped by a frothy, initially two-finger thick, light tan colored head that falls back into the beer and leaves a bit of lacing as it goes. Upon first whiff the aroma has dry toasted malt notes that move to toffee and then to a solid fruitiness towards the end. The fruit notes remind me of sweet plums, red grapes, raisins and the aromatics coming off a ripe, aromatic red apple variety. I am a bit surprised how fruity this is, it is not out of place, but it certainly comes to dominate the aroma profile of this beer.

Up front this beer is lightly tart, a touch sweet, but definitely is fruity. The tart character and the light sweetness serve to accentuate the fruit notes; I especially get notes of crisp red apples and sweet even lightly concentrated plums. The beer finishes with a touch of hop bitterness, just enough to cause my tongue and back of my throat to tingle. Actually the tingle of hop character starts in the middle and goes through to the near finish. There is just a hint of astringent herbal hop flavor here, it intermingles quite well with the fruit notes, adding a touch of much needed complexity.

This is quite a simplistically flavored brew. It is well made, clean and expressive of their yeast, but could certainly use a bit more flavor. why does organic have to mean bland? They haven’t even gotten to the flavor threshold of most of their other products. This beer does open up a bit as it warms up. Still, nothing jumps out at me, but it seems to become a bit more integrated. Though I am not sure if it is enough to hold my interest.

Bottle. Poured hazy copper with an average frothy off-white head that mostly diminished with fair lacing. Moderate caramel tart citrus aroma. Light to medium body with a watery texture. Medium sweet flavor with a medium sweet finish of moderate duration.