Ding Points: 80.00

Pour: 80.00, Nose: 80.00, Palate: 80.00, Mouth: 80.00, Global: 80.00

Tasting Notes:

Mid-amber pour with pretty good clarity. Smallish white head without much retention or lace.

The Caledonian Brewing Company Ltd., Newcastle Winter IPA

Nose gives a simple, toasty malt base and a few hoppy overtones.

The tastes follow suit with a solid, caramel malt base and some pretty light hop tones.

This beer may confuse American drinkers because they may be looking for a typically aggressively hopped IPA. This is clearly NOT that. The beer actually reminds me a lot of an old style, British, 1970’s ‘light ale’. It has a very refreshing, approachable, easy drinking element, but at the same time has a decent depth of flavor. Some drying bitterness in the finish, but of course nothing compared to its contemporary, American counterpart.

Pretty subtle actually, but for me it still offers some really perceptible bitterness and a decent twang in the finish. Interesting beer, since it starts off being quite a malty affair but in the finish it reverts back to a much drier, more bitter finish.

Nothing earth shattering here, but I think there is a nice combination of some light, biscuit English style malts together with a half-decent dry bitterness. The combination leads to an interesting amalgamation of simple drinkability, with quite a satisfying bitter finish. The mouthfeel is very light, but that adds to the approachability rather than subtracting from the beer.

I suspect that this will get a less than favorable reception from sections of the beer geek crown, but for me it’s pretty good. The kind of beer that I would consider buying a six-pack of without much hesitation.

Other: 5.20%, English IPA.