Victoria Bitter Original Ale

Brewed by Carlton & United Breweries (CUB)
Style: Bitter
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Not bad, but not much to rave about. However, so much better than regular VB it really shouldn’t have those two letters on the label. Very malty, with some nuttiness and a little caramel. Some unfortunate POR metallic flavour, but it was drinkable thankfully

Bottled. Hoppy bitter aroma. Orange colour with foaming beige head. Easy drinking. Regular VB with an aged, rustic edge too it.

Pours a clear and sparkling orange color with a medium head that shows litle retention and leaves a semi-decent lacing. Aroma is hoppy with a slight malty touch. There are mainly herbal notes with lots of grainy hints. Reminds me of a bland pilsener. It shows some caramel too. Flavor is bitter but not too much. It’s flat and shows some metallic traces with a very lagerish character. In a blind tasting I wouldn’t notice this is an ale. Light body, kinda refreshing with a semi-astringent finish. Not great at all. This beer has some more flavor than the typical macro swill. Better than it’s score but not by much.

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BottlePale orange color with lots of bubbles going up. Strong hoppy aroma with grain and smooth bread and caramel touches as well as light alcohol hints. Bitter-sweet flavor with roasted grains in the aftertaste. Chalky finnish. Very watery and light bodied.

Bottle. had it at a slightly warm temperature, and it actually didn’t taste too bad. Pretty crap, sure, but coming from Carlton and United not that bad. Which, unfortunately, is still pretty bad. Some slight sugary honeyed notes, with touches of some sort of fruit, don’t know which, maybe pawpaw. Fizzy, dusty and metallic Pride of Ringwood character to finish. Pretty smooth, with minimal chunder characters like the regular stuff. Unimaginative, but, yeah, it could have been worse i guess.

Tap at Transport. Ah, I knew I’d end up having this stuff sooner or later. Lets start with the positive. It looked pretty good. Served in a very distinctive old-school-with-a-modern-twist glass which is kinda half-way between a Hoegaarden tumbler and a jar. Heavily hazy ruddy orange colour with a very nice looking creamy head. From there it’s seriously downhill. Rotting apricots and kiwi fruit with artificial watermelon. Sweet and sour, followed by some bitterness. The ridiculously thick body and sweetness make me think that perhaps they’re using their regular yeast which is accustomed to high adjunct levels. Reminds me of the old-style Bells beer, only without any of the good things. Less artificial than normal VB, but also less good.

23 Sep 05 - Sweet simplistic malt and some Pride of Ringwood hop aroma. Clear orange-brown colour, goodish head but ordinary lacing. It’s a VB with malt and more flavour hops, but still a bland flavour. Light caramel malt finish and a VB bitter finish. This is more interesting than VB, but it is still in the lowest common denominator.

bottled. i dunno, could have been worse. slight pride of ringwood aroma with a bit of compost and faint pineapple. similar flavour to regular vb, perhaps slightly less artificial but still pretty bad