Swale Indian Summer

Formerly brewed at Whitstable
Style: Golden Ale/Blond Ale
Maidstone, England

Nose like a tropical fruit basket - rambutan, winter melon, mango and passion fruit; the palate is appetizingly hoppy with more tropical fruit notes alongside woody flavours and toasty malt.

Crystal clear golden ale. Huge, frothy, white head which diminishes to a small, creamy white head with staying power. Spotty lacing. Fruity aroma. Dried apricots. Vineous notes. Light, underripe banana and caramel. The flavor is bursting with apricot and other fuzzy fruit. Well-balanced with some pungency and light bitterness. Light-bodied with a lightly oily mouthfeel and fizzy carbonation. Short, crisp, clean finish with some grapefruit rind thrown in as an afterthought.

Lovely stuff. Aromatic hops for everyone. Lycheee grapefruit, lemons. Lovely hops, long bitter, beautiful finish, a highlight at the festival, lovely quaffability, but with some stunning flavours, balance and complexity (Cask- KentBF 03')

Murky orange color with only a beverage covering amount of tiny cream colored bubbles. Light aromas of tropical fruit (near fruit punch) and pale malt. Smooth and gentle in feel. Acidic woody malt start and mild malt middle. Really quite bland. Bitterness (grapefruit zest) kick in at the end and sticks to the back of the throat. I'm thinking I have a "flat" bottle and will rerate when the time presents itself, hopefully on cask.

Bottle. Poured clear copper color with an average rocky off-white head that was mostly lasting and produced good lacing. Moderate hoppy sour citrus aroma. Medium smooth body with a soft texture. Moderate bitter citrus flavor with a medium bittersweet finish of moderate duration. Solid drinkable beer.

Bottle and served in a no-nik pint glass; Pours a clean golden hue with a small but mostly lasting white head and okay lace. The aroma has notes of mint leaves, mild citric and floral hops, biscuity malt, hint of oncoming oxidation, and a vapour of dusty yeast esters. The taste is mildly fruity with a equally mild pale malt background, very good balance and the best part of this brew. The finish does have a subdued papery condition which would be caused by age, but the store just got these in so I dunno, perhaps setting at customs too long? The aftertaste has some citric and astringent qualities. Thin-bodied and watery mouth feel is the biggest problem with this beer. Not the best example of a session ale but is drinkable.

Bottle Conditioned. The 4.2% is the cask version of this ale - the bottled version is 5.0% and is on this site as simply Indian Summer. Even though I am a big fan of Swale's Whitstable Oyster Stout I didn't like this when I tried it about a year ago on draught. At that time my taste-buds were not up to an especially hoppy brew. I will revisit this again to re-rate in the future, both in the cask and in the bottle! [2.3]
Re-rate. Gravity Cask, Kent Beer Festival, with Duff & Nuffield. The Swale Brewery has been bought by the Whitstable Oyster Fishery Company. During the transitional stage the beers are still being brewed by Swale while the new owners learn how to make beer! Light, golden orange amber colour. Smooth pale malt aroma. Wow! flavour - oranges and lemons bursting everywhere, yet held in place with a sweet marmalde tinged malt. A spanking good ale. [3.7]

This bottled brew poured a small sized head of frothy mostly diminishing white colored bubbles that left behind a good lacing. The body contained average carbonation, was hazy with yeast floaties and its color was unnoted. Its aroma contained notes of a notable amount of malts that made its presence known with mild hop content. Its mouth feel is initially slightly tingly and hoppy. Its flavor contained thin malts with caramel and hop notes.