St. Austell Hicks Special Draught
St. Austell Hicks Special Draught
Rated 3.388 by BeerPals
Brewed by St. Austell Brewery
St. Austell, Cornwall, United Kingdom
Style: Extra Special Bitter
5% Alcohol by Volume
Availability of this beer is unknown
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A legendary high gravity ale brewed with plenty of malt and generous portions of English Fuggles and Golding hops. Dried fruit and hops dominate an aromatic nose. The palate is full-bodied with an exceptional toffee maltiness. Hicks Special Draught is a classic strong ale of considerable depth and complexity.
ID: 6536 Last updated 2 weeks ago Added to database 23 years agoKey Stats
percentile
0
Drunk5
Reviews0
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Most noted beer attributes
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Statistics
| Overall Rank | 5990 |
| Overall Percentile | 89.2 |
| Style Rank | 67 of 742 |
| Style Percentile | 91 |
| Lowest Score | 3.2 |
| Highest Score | 4.0 |
| Average Score | 3.620 |
| Weighted Score | 3.388 |
| Standard Deviation | 0.335 |
Rating Distribution
Beer vs Style
5 Member Reviews
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Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7
500 ml bottle conditioned, as St. Austell Hicks Traditional Strong Cornish Ale, from Vinmonopolet Sandnes Kvadrat. ABV is 5.0%. Clear reddish brown colour, small off-white head. Aroma of malts, toffee, caramel, roasted nuts, blackcurrants and prunes. Flavour with the same elements, and fairly distinct earthy hops, medium bitter finish.
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Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 8
Cask
Aroma: sweet malt, caramel, hops, citrus
Appearance: clear copper, thin tan head
Mouthfeel: full bodied
Flavour: malt, grainy, toffee, hops
Overall: Delightfully delicious! " -
Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8
First sampled cask-conditioned at The Ship Inn, Mevagissey, Cornwall.
HSD is nicknamed "High Speed Death" and/or "High Speed Diesel" by the locals, due to this beer having something a reputation for being so much bigger and bolder than the standard line-up of cask-conditioned Cornish Ales typically available around town. But while I think that's a bit silly -- we're only talking about an extra 1.0% increase in alcohol, compared to the standard 4.0%ABV Bitters seen around town! -- I personally only had a single pint of this, so can't fairly judge it's night-ending potential...! ;)
But I can still have a fair judgement of this beer's overall merit. Basically, this is a fairly nice drop all-told.Fuggles n' Goldings, so nothing strange or avant-garde on that front of course. And the nutty front-end (biscuity) is surely nothing I haven't run across before (on either side of The Atlantic). But the odd hints of fruit in the mix is something of an eyebrow-raiser IMO. Has almost some vague cider-like aspects to the middle and the finish, that I can't rationally explain.
Either way, this is nice in the mouthfeel, and a pleasure to drink. Could imagine that this might catch up to you after, say, 4-5 Imperial Pints of this. But for a solid counterpoint to The Ship's Inn famous fish n' chip lunch platter, this worked quite nicely in my book. Recommended.
[Like the Tribute, this is also available bottled -- and a month later won over a host of hop-head Foamies to the merits of true Cornish Ales...!]
//TB -
Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7
On draught at the Ship, in Looe, Cornwall. Dark brown beer with medium malty head. Malt turning to a sweet bitterness. Quite rounded and drinkable, pretty good.
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Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 6
Strong taste - a good winter beer
