Shepherd Neame Early Bird (Bottle)

Brewed by Shepherd Neame
Style: Bitter
Faversham, England

Clear copper, foamy white head. Nose is fresh hops, a bit flowery with quite sweet honeyish malts. Flavor has grassy and citric hops with some malts on the dry and bitter finish. Light to medium bodied, strongly carbonated palate. Fresh and simple session ale.

Bottle from Sainsburys. Deep amber coloured with a short-lived, yet lively white head. Aroma had some grassy hops with a lick of caramel. Light mouth feel with some bready malt and a lightly hoppy, dry finish, marred by a metallic note.

Bottle 0.5 l 4.5 %. Pours orange copper with a smallish head. Nose has strong gummy bears, citrus, hay, grass, fresh leaves, flowers, indeed very springlike and attractive. Flavor is mildly malty with grass and haylike hoppiness, with a bit of a buttery undertone. Very light overall feel, yet not really watery. Easy and refreshing.

A clear, reasonably carbonated orange coloured beer with a tall, quick-to-disappear white head. Even as I poured this from the bottle, I instantly caught a whiff of one of its aromas: smoked malts. On closer inspection, it offered up notes of fruit, hay and wood. Despite the occasional hint of a metallic aftertaste in the flavour in the beginning, this brew’s taste profile is fairly standard for a Shepherd Neame bitter. Ready in a fresh, citric hoppiness with a lingering bitter finish. Sometimes a touch of sweetness hits the palate but this is fairly disguised by the hops. An average palate texture but another nice product from the brewery.

Very mild malt and zest aroma. The flavour is a little under-whelming, some nut notes and some lemon. Very thin mouth feel, very carbonated yet a fast diminishing head. Gerneric is what i’d call this beer.

(Bottled) Clear copper with a medium, partly lasting head. Toffeeish, lightly buttery maltiness with crisp, slightly harsh, woody-lemony hops in the aroma. The harshness settles after a while, though. Crisply lemony-hoppy flavor with some balancing maltiness, and a lemony-buttery, mildly bitter finish. Light to medium-bodied, somewhat carbonated, but refreshing palate. A crisp and refreshing summer session ale.

0.5 l bottle. Copper color with small head. Salty, fruity, tart, lemony, candyish and caramelly aroma. Crisp, salty and dry flavor with tart fruitiness, some toasty notes and some fresh fruity hop flavors. Again too minerally flavor as usual for Shepherd.

Copper with a white head. Aroma has sweetness but also other ill-defined and quite unpleasnat notes. Sweet taste with something rather leafy. Could it be tea? Mid bitter finish. A most unsatisfactory muddle.