PDubyah: Beer - #252- Faversham - Whitstable Bay Organic Ale

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Beer - #252- Faversham - Whitstable Bay Organic Ale

Ok, So I was at the English Corner Shoppe and was enticed by this, well not really, I was drawn buy the pretty average but huge selling Iron Maiden beer. But this then the bottle of a Shepherd Neame Whitstable Bay Organic Ale.

Stewart in a straight line this is pretty close amirght?

Brewed by Shepherd Neame or the more romantic Faversham Steam Brewery Company as a Bitter in a place I used to know, Faversham, England

A Pint, 500ml, (near as close) of a 4.5% ABV beer , in NZ thats 1.78 drinks , the Uk 2.3! A 135 Calorie intake,

Ingredients: Organic English barley malt; New Zealand Gem and Hallertau hops.
"Pure water from our own artesian well combined with over 300 years of brewing expertise create a clean, refreshing ale with a full-bodied flavour."Whitstable Bay Organic Ale is a light coloured ale that is brewed using only organic ingredients, and the brewery’s own chalk-filtered mineral water. It combines delicate hints of fresh hops with the softer, buttery richness of pale and crystal malts to produce a delightful ale.

Stand by then for : A well-defined golden ale that blends citrusy hops with nutty malt flavours to create a fresh drink with additional notes of ripe fruit giving a unique finish

This has that low bitter aroma of English beers, but pure that nice golden brown colour and almost with a head of foam, which is persistent if nothing else.

And as you can tell not a Pint, which would be 560ml, but close enough is close.

This is so so different to other beers that I've been drinking, there is so much more immediate noise in the profile. the Aroma is muted and flat to a note of just malt, the bitter is a ding on a piano scale not a crash.

It's a bit odd to drink a beer like this after so many really nice beers and not frown a bit about how point note this is and how there is no profile or journey. No Citrus, no malts, unless I don't understand those concepts this is devoid. Or perhaps those words do not mean what I think the mean.

his is a crash of bitter tang, with not a lot of carry and a sharp finish. It's a quintessential English Bitter. All immediate and delivered. You don't enjoy this beer you drink it.

Enlightened to realise that this has NZ Hallertau and Gem hops in it, doesn't make a difference. The Hallertau brewery uses these hops more effectively, well they don't but then they don't travel them half a world away to make nothing of them. Not all the Hallertau beers, hush me, the Stuntman is a to-die-for.

Calming myself, because now I'm just imagining me in a snug with this, playing dominos or some other game of skill, unrewarded.

Recapping and to get back on track then, this is a bitter beer in the English sense of bitter, bitter not through the actions of the hops as a piece of the profile but as a result of something. It's just a beer of plainness and averageness. Organic or not what' s the justification of the NZ Hallertau or Gem things? Doesn't Kent have a hop thing going on a bit closer?

The pdubyah-o-meter shuns the brit-beer thing with a 5 - average all the way mark for this. If this is your thing, you're upbringing then you might get it, if you're learned at all and drink more than "pint of heavy" or a regular domestic, then this can't be surprising or entertaining for you.

Again for me, not the thing that is going to make me want to dash back home and indulge myself to a liver transplant. I'm being harsh because this does stack up against many local NZ beers and would not be called out. But if you're going to call yourself out as "Organic", then make something else of it not just a thing that appeals to the unshed hippy.

I think.