Shepherd Neame Fuggles Kentish Ale

Brewed by Shepherd Neame
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Faversham, England

From cask at Standing Order. Pours clear and golden yellow with a fully gone head. Mild spiced and slight malty towards minimal butterish aroma. Bitter and hoppy flavoured with a mild butterish note. Ends spiced and medium dry.

<i>Cask Conditioned at J.D. Watherspoon - The Shakespear’s Head, London, 4.4% ABV</i>
Hazy deep blond color; thin creamy head. The aroma is light, perfumy, flowery (very light elderflowers). Dry toffee flavor, quite strong bitterness, but nothing special.

1. Cask Handpump at the Penny Black, Northwich (JDW) 18/05/2005 Golden coloured hoppy and fruity flavour. Slightly creamy on the palate. Bitter lasting malt finish. 2. Cask Handpump at the Bankers Draft JDW, Sheffield 29/11/2008 (ABV 4.4%) Hoppy aroma. Golden coloured smooth on the palate fruity and a little sweet. Some dryness and bitterness in a crisp malt finish.

Cask @ County Hotel (JDW) Ashford. Caramel in colour, Shepherd Neame distinctive yeast nose and citric nose. Malty caramel and fullish in mouth with slightly dry finish, slightly earthy. For a Sheps beer, I quite liked it

<i>A Mes rate: cask at the Crosse Keys ’Sporks.</i>
Attractive gold colour with a thin white head and good condition. Decent Fuggles all round. Nice fruity malt and a balanced fruity finish. Likable but straight forward and hard to get excited about.

Cask in the cross keys and the new crown. Alround rating: Soapy floral leafy hop, some lemon, some cheese and onion crisps, but not in the new crown, fresh and tasty stuff.

Cask Conditioned at a JDW. Orange amber beer with bubbly white head. It’s surprising that Sheps have retained this beer just for JDW Festivals, much more could be made of it. There is a dusty hoppiness throughout, the same flavour you get from chewing a hop bud, perhaps a little overwhelming, but it is definitely Fuggles. A light crisp base to carry the flavour, which it does well. On the drier side, very enjoyable.

Bright amber colour. Light, but lasting head. Not so long ago ignorance of hop varieties and their characteristics was widespread on the UK ale scene. And Fuggles was one of the first hop varieties that started to change all that. Even the name is redolent of traditional old England. And this is a very traditional beer with that rather dusty Fuggles aroma and more of the same on the palate. The fact that I now find Fuggles on its own a bit dull is a measure of how far the scene has moved on. Nowadays, we often expect some of the oomph that overseas hop varieties can inject and, when that’s lacking, the result can seem rather muted. And, for me, so it is with this beer. It has plenty of body and a pleasant bittersweet character, but I just don’t find it that exciting. Cask (handpump), Penderels Oak (JDW), Holborn, London.