Smiles Heritage

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

~ 500mL clear-glass bottle, purchased for $2.99 at the Weinhaus (Asheville NC), and sampled back in San Diego CA.

Interesting. In my expierence so far with the Weinhaus beers (especially the imports), it's been rather hit&miss, quality-wise. With the beer selection uncomfortably close to the front window of the store, it's no small surprise I suppose that some beers would end up having Gone South. I should have picked up on this little ditty before grabbing this particular never-seen-before clear-glass bottle, but oh well. But what's interesting is that for a bottle type that is especially suceptible to getting skunked and what not, this beer from the store in question was just fine....

I assumed this was a Bitter when I purchased it, but then could easily see that it was more along the lines of a Brown Ale once I got it into my Russian River 500mL tulip pint glass. Hints of red in the brown body, with some nice well-managed foaming at the head.

I was also expecting some buttery esters in the nose, in keeping with many of the few authentic English Browns that have crossed my path. But no, this was more along the lines of having rather clean, malty notes in the aroma. Hints of hops, no more.

Much of the same can be said for the flavor profile too. This gives the malt bill full reign, with the hops only providing the middle and backend bitterness neccesary to keep things balanaced out nicely. Fuggles, or Stryrian Goldings, would be my best uneducated guess here.

Finishes easy-as-pie. Nice and quite quaffable, all told. And for the price, this was quite a deal, I'd say. Shame that Smiles feels the need to use the clear bottles for their bottles, which is sometimes a bit of a crap-shoot (e.g. Done well? Samuel Smith. Done Baddly? Wychwood). But either way, this is worth a try, I'd say.

Music: At The Gates' "Gardens Of Grief"
//TB

Aroma: 0 | Appearance: 0 | Mouthfeel: 0 | Flavor: 0 | Overall: 0