Speights Distinction Ale

Honey flavours, Light gold in colour. Has since been rebranded as part of leagacy seriers

Nice, well balanced beer. Slightly sweet with caramel, no hops to speak of. Smooth and refreshing, I liked this one.

Tasted this one a few months ago so I’m relying on notes alone. Didn’t mind it by memory, I expected a lot less so it excelled atleast. From the bottle into a Monteith’s chalice just to give it the ’NZ’ feel. Bright, fiery copper body, capped by a well formed pad of cream that held on and laced well. Carbonation was very sparce showing it had some body to hold the head afloat. Strange aroma of tree-bark, oak barrels and dusty, dried mulch and weeds. Quite gritty, with just a light show of zesty berries coming in late. Soft, creamy and light on the palate. Firm grip of woody, dry malts, weedy, dusty hops and lightly roasted grains. Peaty, herbal and bitter malt and hop swallow. Just a light showing of extracted tannins, normal. Good woody malt length that shows just a little more peat and an edge of bitter herbs. Quite refreshing in the way I find most woody dry beers so. Not bad, nothing disagreeable and it does have some character to it. Pleasant drinking. (33cL, 03/11/06, The Beer Store Morley)

Dark amber color,small off white head that faded quite quickly.Sweet malt aroma with a hint of fruit and maybe some hops,a little toffee or caramel as well.The taste is slightly roasty with a decent flavor of caramel anda smal amount of hops towards the end of the tasting.The brew is quite sweet as well,with a mild nutty like appearance.The finish is caramel and sweet.Decent brew and well worth trying agan but that would be a bit hard to do and would involve another trade.Thanks go to Mutant for sending this nice brew my way.

Draught@Speights Ale House, Queenstown, New Zealand. Reddish brown beer with a lightly malty aroma, and a roasted and lightly bitter flavour with malty elements. Overall a nice beer - malty and very gently bitter.