Shepherd Neame Early Bird (Bottle)

Brewed by Shepherd Neame
Style: Bitter
Faversham, England

Serving date: 2009-03-09. Best before: February 2010. Served in snifter. Deep golden orange. Big off-white uneven and rather thick head. Medium amount of lacings. Plenty of bubbles in the liquid. The smell is mostly of dry earth and fresh carrots. Boiled root vegetables, especially cauliflower. Chestnuts. Some hops, mostly sharp floral resins (like sucking on a newly picked dandelion) and restrained citric notes. This is not pleasant at all. Very strange and edgy. Mild sweet fruit aromas up front (grapefruit, pears) This part is quite nice, then it gets worse. A weird and unpleasant mix of metallic flavors, dry loaf, some faint malts, something roasted and very strange sharp hop aromas (again, floral resins). The finish is surprisingly bitter, but there’s nothing to balance it so it just feels out of place. It ends with a very long - and this is not a good quality in this context - aftertaste of dry earthy minerals and more floral resins. The finish is actually really bad, and it gets worse towards the end. Medium body, plenty of carbonation (too much). It feels bland. This is as close to awful a beer can get. The only positive qualities where the appearance and the fruity flavors just in the beginning. The rest ranges from weird and out of place to very unpleasant. Maybe this was a bad bottle, I don’t know, but I really did not like this one. Serving type: bottle (Copy of old Beer Advocate review)

2008-04-12, bottle, a bit to thin for my palate, frit, green hops, grass, honey

50cl bottle. Pours a clear golden color. White head that lasts. Hoppy aroma, fruits. Caramel and hoppy flavor, nice and refreshing brew.

500 ml clear bottle, from Systembolaget, thanks to OleR! ABV is 4.5%. Deep golden colour, big white (possibly slightly off-white) head. "Skunky" aroma when opening the bottle, not unpleasant though. Nice hoppy aroma in the glass, grassy and slightly woody notes. Light mouthfeel, moderately hoppy flavour with hints of toffee. "Dusty" and moderately bitter finish. No masterpiece, but refreshing and highly drinkable.

Applejuice colored, lasting head. Dry and very hoppy. Apparent bitterness well balanced by the dimunitive caramel and grassy resin sidetones.

Deep golden color with a nice white head. Hoppy aroma with hints of citrus, grass and some wood. Flavor of light roasted malt, caramel and an evident hoppy bitterness. Those early Kentish spring hops are clearly coming through in both the aroma and the flavor.

Bottle. It poured a dark clear golden liquid with a medium foam and nice lacing. Smelled of some kind of tree, oak maybe. Also grassy hops. It had a weak taste, a bit maly with some hops, not much bitterness.