As most of this breweries’ beers do, this pale ale also presents with some pretty respectable awards. Picking up mainly silver and bronze medals in 2 different beer competitions here in Australia and in London.
We served in a shaker glass. The clear amber appearance is crowned by a loosely packed finger of off white foam that peels off to a very fine covering on top. Average lacing. Very malt-driven aroma, we can see why these beers do well in the UK. There are some elements of fruit here but we’re getting a stronger waft of florals like lavender, sage and pine. Very malty sweet with perfumes of honey, caramel and toffee that seem to easily drown out the hops. Too malty. In the mouth it’s well bodied and round with medium carbonation and body. Silky smooth texture. Unfortunately the flavour seems to follow on from the aroma with a heavy-handed malt profile that almost renders out the hops. This overdone malty sweet flavour is corrected with hints of passion fruit and stonefruit upfront. As the fruits subside the honeyed malts return and in turn deliver an overall malty/grainy finish with reasonable length. 4.7% ABV is modest at best. To be honest we think this pale ale is seriously lacking in hops. Not only that it has no real character and almost comes off as a full bodied pilsner. Not for us.