UPDATED: MAY 28, 2021 Bottle from Cloudwater online store. Clear vibrant copper with an off white head. Nutty and toffee. Warm pancakes and golden syrup. Little cola. Brown sugar. Medium light body with a refreshing carbonation. Light leafy bitterness. Easy drinking ale.

UPDATED: NOV 29, 2020 One of my favourite beers growing up in England. Really easy, perfectly balanced -- a great pub beer. I wish it were easier to find in Australia.

UPDATED: NOV 10, 2020 (from very old notes-Druids Head Pub, Brighton 07/12) - Aroma : Light-medium sweet toffee/biscuity maltiness, merest hint of red fruit hop. Taste : Body is on the thin side of medium. Moderately bitter throughtout. Flavour is over-ridingly a gentle malty toffee. O.K. & above the average BB

UPDATED: MAY 5, 2020 An absolute Classic bitter. Many locals regard this as the best beer bar none. Like any live beer you can catch it when its past its best in the barrel but it is the best in its class. God Forbid any big firm buys the brewery. I went on a brewery tour once and one of the party was a marketing consultant asked if he could pitch a few ideas to the MD. The MD said 'I can sell every single pint I can make why should I spend money on marketing.'

UPDATED: MAR 11, 2020 Cask to half-pint at The Harp in London. Looks good for the style; a transparent paler copper with eggshell head. Smells and tastes of a nice balance of hops and malt with a mildly but pleasantly bitter medium light-bodied mouthfeel. A great example of the style.

UPDATED: MAR 2, 2020 Pint from cask at Five Ways Brighton (BN1 6JG), 2020-02-15. Appearance is clear deep amber, with a thin off white head that disappears quite quickly. No visible carbonation as expected. Looks like a well-kept pint of bitter and nothing more. Aroma is pretty washed out. There's a surprising amount of pear ester, but almost nothing else. Maybe a hint of malty breadiness, but nothing more. Taste is a little better. Again, some orchard fruit sweetness up front and a bit of malty breadiness towards the finish, but there's not much. A slightly unpleasant artificial bitterness on the finish too. Palate is fine. Quite light-bodied, but a decent length finish and suitably round and smooth. Overall, this is a pretty good example of the issues with a lot of best bitters. Nothing particularly wrong with it (odd bitterness aside), but it's woefully forgettable.

UPDATED: JAN 1, 2020 Tap at The Crown, Chiswick High Road. Clear amber chest nut body with big white head. Bitter with malt, caramel, bread and some almost sour and quite rich taste that I can not place. Good beer however.

UPDATED: OCT 19, 2019 Cask at Cask Festival Haket 2019-10-19 Göteborg AR: sour dust, rye loaf AP: clear bronze, ofwhite creamy lid F: sour rye bread, bitter,

UPDATED: SEP 30, 2019 Aroma of caramel, toast and malt. Amber with a off-white head. Medium sweet and medium bitter. Medium body with soft carbonation. Overall a very decent Bitter.

UPDATED: SEP 19, 2019 Cask. The Lyric, Soho. Clear, amber colour. Messy off white foam stays the course. Nose has sourdough yeast. Berries. Some nutty, bready grain. Taste is light dry and a little tart, with soft malt sweetness on the lips. Light body. Fairly dry and yeasty sour. Fine carbonation. Lingering, lightly tart bitterness to finish. Distinctive beer. Loads of flavour for the style and ABV.