During the 90’s I lived in Falmouth, Cornwall and I had two pubs on my doorstep and right next door to each other.
One always had Sharp’s Doom Bar on and the other was, if I remember correctly, a St. Austell pub.
This bottle reminds me of why in those days I preferred the St. Austell brews.
What a super bottle of beer this is.
In your glass you have a delicious looking copper orange beer with a light head.
The smell is full of hedgerow after the rain, orange rind and a pinch of yeast.
The beer feels good in your mouth, thick and chewy, but fizzy and fresh.
You get a really good malt full of all the best bits of eating a Daim Bar, caramel, almonds, a hint of salted chocolate.
It’s biscuity and malty and satisfying and yet that’s just the backbone for the hopping.
Oh man, the hopping is big and angry, fiery and fun.
Spiky black pepper corns, crushed and mixed with lemon rind and grapefruit.
The hops bring out a lovely green hazelnut dryness that you’ll instantly recognise if you’ve ever been playing “up the woods” as a child and tried eating what you see squirrels eat.
It’s delicious but extremely dry, rubbing all the moisture from your mouth and leaving you puckered in the most pleasurable way.
I could go on, but I won’t.
Suffice to say, Proper Job is a proper job.