Beer Review #3

Beer 6: Samuel Smith's Old Brewery Bitter

Served: Beer engine into pint glass

Appearance: Very dark brown

Smell: Toasty malt

Taste: This stuff is delicious. It's like an American Guinness with actual flavor, but a bit hoppier (though not enough to make me hate it).

Price: £5.02 for 1.5 pints. This comes out to about £3.66, which isn't too far above what I would expect to pay for Samuel Smith's in the US.

Overall: 6.5/10. I would take a UCBC Zwickel over this, but it would be close. The ornate Princess Louise pub I drank it in, shown below, is an added bonus.

Beer #7: Nicholson's Pale Ale

Served: Half pint, from usual.

Appearance: Amber

Smell: Hops and citrus fruits.

Tastes: Hops and fruit. Like drinking a Magic Hat somebody spiked with... let's just be PC and say hops.

Price: I drank these yesterday and don't remember, but I think the half pint was £2 or so.

Overall: 3.5/10. Might not be that bad, but not my style.

Beer 8: Navigation Ice Breaker

Appearance: Pale yellow. Ruh Roh, Raggy...

Smell: Faint hops, nothing else...

Taste: I had the idea that AB should make a Bud Pale, which is a Bud Light version of pale ale. That idea is useless now, because this beer is exactly what Bud Pale should taste like. It's faintly hoppy, but mostly water. My mom ordered this, drank half, and let me finish it. I wish I hadn't.

Price: Same as above, but should be like 50p per gallon.

Overall Rating: 2/10. I would rather drink Bud Light than this crap.

Beer #9: McMullen's AK

Served: Pint glass, beer engine.

Appearance: Amber

Smell: A little malty.

Taste: At this point, the beers are all starting to taste similar. You get a good balance of malt and hops, with very little alcohol. This one was only 3.7% ABV, but with a ton more flavor than stuff like Bud Select.

Price: £3.55

Overall Rating: 5/10, knocked down to 2.5 out of 10 for poor bang for your buck/pop for your pound.

Beer #10: Adnam's Explorer

Served: Pint.

Appearance: Amber

Smell: None, but my nose was congested.

Taste: Pretty standard British bitter. Hoppier than others I've had though.

Price: £4.10. This is because I had this at the pub near our room in Kensington, which is very Posh (as in Posh Spice & David Beckham live somewhere around here). It's probably 60p less in a less fashionable area.

Overall Rating: 4/10, knocked down to 2/10 on price. Not my style, and not my price range for what is essentially fancy Bud Light.

Beer #11: Sambrook's Wandle

Served: Same way as every beer I've had in this country, but only half a pint, as it was closing time.

Appearance: Golden yellow

Smell: Disqualified due to nasal congestion. Based on taste, I would guess wheat.

Taste: Well whaddaya know, it's a wheat beer on cask (this is one of my favorite styles). Unfortunately, it's ABV of around 4 noticeably saps its flavor. This stuff would be killer at 5%.

Price: £2.13. Remember, that's for about 9oz, folks.

Overall Rating: 4/10, but gets a 2/10 after the price deduction.