Three Castles: Angel (England: Golden Ale: 3.7% ABV)
Visual: Honeyed gold. Thin dash of white foam for head. The pint was nearly filled to the brim leaving very little room for head.
Nose: Dried apricot. Banana.
Body: Moderate bitterness. Banana. Stewed fruit. Apricot and vanilla.
Finish: White grapes or wine. Light bitterness. Banana sweets. Lime. Dried passion fruit.
Conclusion: I grabbed this beer as I was looking for something light and sessionable that night. Ok, ok, and because it had an angel on the front and I spent ages staring at it and going “Remember. Don’t blink” and “that which holds the image of an angel is an angel”. If you get the reference you are as much of a geek as I am. Anyway, a sessionable ale, did it do the job?
It’s pretty fruity, not too heavy bodied but with a robust bitterness. So lets look at the session beer criteria. It is low abv, at 3.7 pretty much in the sweet spot of session beer abv. Bitterness is good but fades out quickly between sips which allows you to return to the beer easily. Flavours are pleasant fruit but not so forthright that it sticks around too long and becomes annoying over several pints. So it seems to be keeping to the elements pretty well so far.
The fruit can come in quite dry for the most part, rather than fresh and zesty. The tart edges of some fruit is cut off leaving just a sweetness. It is pleasant but not quite exciting. It is the eternal trade off of enjoyable for a single pint versus a session.
So, pleasant, not lacking for flavor by any means of the imagination and a bit different in the flavor it does use. For such a sessionable beer it also does very well with the bitterness as well, and settles very nicely into a routine between fruit and bitterness. It is almost a fruit juice and hops mix, which I cannot complain about.
So, again, pleasant. By it’s nature and intent now showy, but a reasonable and enjoyable way to pass time with good beer.
Background: Since I had decided to do a bit of cask ale over the holiday, after quite the craft ale kick before, I decided to go to an old favorite pub I hadn’t been to for a while. The Royal Oak. It has lost a bit of the atmosphere since the old days but still has a reasonable selection of cask ales. These days I would say the Raven tips it out for most varied cask selection in Bath. I’m not kidding in the main review, I did spend ages making “weeping angel” jokes about this. I am such a Doctor Who geek.
