Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 8

Cask at The Cricketers, Ipswich. Black colour, moderate roasted malts aroma. Flavour is all roasted and smoked malts with some faint vinegary sidenotes. Very nice.

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

(500 ml bottle). Enormous thick and lasting beige head, colour is very dark brown, cloudy. Aroma is immediately bread yeast, bread dough, fresh sweet buns. As the beer warms up, I also get rye bread, leather and caramel. Flavour is rye bread, caramel (too much), molasses, hints of roastiness and spices. Warming mouthfeel. There’s a very good beer hidden in here somewhere, but it remains unreleased. Sweetness is mostly to blame.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 8

Cask at the Ipswich Beer Festival 2004, gravity dispense. Colour is black / very dark ruby. Aroma is roast malts on an initially unpleasant background of vomit, gets better as the beer warms up. Flavour is much better, again: roast malts and coffee. Bitterness seems just right. Easy drinking.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Cask at the Ipswich Beer Festival 2004, gravity dispense. The hops are what it’s all about with this light and refreshing golden ale. Would benefit from being served at a slightly cooler temperature than was the case at the IBF. Lovely hoppy aroma and flavour, notes of grapefruit and pineapple. Recommended!

Aroma: 4 | Appearance: 3 | Mouthfeel: 3 | Flavor: 4 | Overall: 4

The bad thing about living in Norway is the price of beer. The good thing, however, is that those of us who live near the coast and have a small boat (yes, like me) can catch our own seafood - for free. Freshly caught crab was my chosen accompaniment with Kirin lager - a good choice, I believed, as the Japanese love seafood more than anyone else in the world. I'm sorry to say that most European pilseners / light lagers would have been a better choice than this one. There is very little aroma, the beer is dry (which is a good thing when you have it with seafood) but some more flavour would have been good too! - aftertaste is metallic. Surely the Japanese can do better than this??

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Cask at the Ipswich Beer Festival 2004, gravity dispense. Black (and I mean BLACK) colour, even when held to the light. Aroma has some dark chocolate, coffee and wood. Roast malt flavour. Hints of tar in the finish. Dry, woody aftertaste. This is not a stout of the "smooth and velvety" kind, but an interesting aquaintance indeed!

Aroma: 3 | Appearance: 4 | Mouthfeel: 3 | Flavor: 3 | Overall: 3

(275 ml bottle). A low carb bitter - what an idea! Commercial description: "Full flavoured English beer" - my ass! Weak malty aroma, very weak flavour. They sure haven’t used too much of the Golding and Fuggle hops which the label boasts! Quite dry. I used most of it to wash down a meal. Definitely not a beer I’ll buy again!

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

Bottle conditioned, 500 ml, bought at Memorable Cheeses, Ipswich. Dark copper coloured, hazy (poured the yeast in). Low head, moderate natural carbonation. Moderate malty aroma, hints of caramel, spices and camphor. Flavour is well balanced, malty and a bit spicy, but has a substantial hoppy bitterness in the finish. Very good.

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

Bottle conditioned, 500 ml. Bought at Memorable Cheeses, Ipswich. A delightful little shop! All beers they stock are local and bottle conditioned. This beer pours with a low head and hazy amber (nearly orange) colour. Moderate but pleasant aroma of caramel / toffee, hops and yeast (I poured it all in). Flavour is slightly yeasty, rounded and well balanced with a moderate but delicious hoppiness that lasts through the aftertaste. Who said the English can’t bottle condition beers?

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 5 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

Rerate, 330 ml bottle, now available in Norway (ICA). ABV is 4.6%. Pale golden colour, large head. There’s an initial Heineken-isch whiff when you open the bottle (an American would probably say "skunky"). In the glass the moderate aroma has notes of maize (corn) and cooked vegetables, hints of flowers and honey. Spritzy mouthfeel. The flavour actually has some malts, and also moderate hops in the finish, so this one is far from being the worst pale lager I’ve tasted. Quite drinkable.