Greene King Old Golden Hen English Bitter at 4.1% ABV ($4.00 at Dominion Stavanger, 500ml, best before 1-Jun-2015)
Pours clear medium gold with two fingers of white head diminishing gradually to a thin skim, no lacing. (3/5) Nose is citrus, fruit, grassy hops, pale malt. (6/10) Taste is balanced moderate sweet and bitter. (6/10) Light watery body, low sustained carbonation, short bitter finish. (3/5)
A decent enough English bitter, if tending to the boring side of the style – which, let’s face it, is already pretty boring. At 4.1% ABV, it’s obviously a session ale, and the light body and low carbonation accentuate that. Definitely in the “inoffensive thirst quencher” category, and very similar to a plain old lager. And what’s up with the clear bottles, anyway? There’s no chance mine’ll be light-struck, since my cellar is completely dark, but not everybody is as spoiled as I am. Sure, it shows off the colour of the beer to maximum advantage, but that’s a poor tradeoff for some punter thinking your beer tastes like skunk if the bottles get mishandled at all, innit? (12/20)
6/10 #ryansbooze ryansbooze.com
