Greene King Flint Eye

Flint Eye is a lovely clear golden beer with a loose, off-white head that disappears quickly, leaving just a faint swirl of bubbles on the surface.  It has a hoppy aroma as well as notes of yellow fruit (banana, pineapple, peach and lemon) and a hint of honey.

Flavour is quite light, as you’d expect for a lager, but the dry hopping process gives it a lovely tang of hops as well as a hint of pine.  It has a thin body but it’s well carbonated, which adds a nice prickle to the mouthfeel.

It’s a lovely crisp, dry and refreshing lager with a decent ABV of 4.5%.  I’m pretty impressed with this lager and I think it’s the perfect lager to quench your thirst on a hot summer’s day.  Ale Be Seeing You again.

Brewed by Greene King Brewery, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
4.5% ABV

My rating:

My Untappd score: 4/5

Find out more at Greene King Brewery

Greene King Festive Pudding Ale

  

Festive Pudding Ale from Greene King comes in a clear bottle so you can see the amazing ruby coloured ale inside and it was colour that sold it to me immediately.  It has to be the most perfect ruby coloured ale, although the head is very disappointing; only briefly forming a thin loose layer before rapidly disappearing and leaving a flat headless pint.

The aroma isn't strong but it's malty and fruity; it's not looking bad at all up to this point so I had reasonably high hopes for the taste test.  First sip isn't bad with a sweet malty flavour and a slight hint of treacle but then it has the weirdest aftertaste: Is it biscuit? Perhaps grapefruit? Possibly cardboard?  Maybe even dirty water?  Certainly no taste at all reminiscent of Christmas, never mind Christmas pudding.

The mouthfeel is just as weird; it's thin-medium bodied with decent carbonation but the bubbles are so harsh that my tongue felt like it had been rubbed with wire wool.  My tongue was tingling for ages after drinking it.  Supposedly 6% ABV, it doesn't feel anything like that strong and I would have put it more at around half that.

Apart from the name, there's nothing festive about Greene King's Festive Pudding Ale and other than the perfect ruby colour, it doesn't have much going for it.  I still drank it all, of course!  

I wouldn't recommend this one so Ale not Be Seeing You again, Festive Pudding Ale.

Brewed by Greene King, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
6% ABV

My rating:

My Untappd score: 3/5

Find out more at Greene King

Greene King Gangly Ghoul

 

🎃 Hoppy Halloween, beer lovers! 🎃

It's the perfect time to release my review of Gangly Ghoul, Greene King's Halloween themed beer.  This comes in a clear bottle so you can see the beautiful mahogany colour of the beer inside and it definitely looks like my kind of beer.

It really is a beautiful ruby tinged mahogany ale with a loose being head that disappears quite quickly to leave a thin patchy foam.  The aroma is so malty that it instantly had my mouth watering but there's also a definite whiff of toffee apples and a hint of orange peel.  It couldn't smell more like Halloween and I was just thinking what a great job Greene King had done, until I tasted it...

The flavour is so weak and the body is so thin that it tastes like slightly malty sparkling water.  With the appearance and aroma scoring so highly, to say I was devastated is an understatement.  I got absolutely no hint of toffee, orange peel or spice that should have been there according to the label.  So very disappointing.

It's so weakly flavoured that it's a ghost of a beer, which is surprisingly relevant for Halloween.  It's only due to the appearance and aroma that it managed to creep into the 3 pint rating with a total score of 25/50.  It's perfectly drinkable and I wouldn't have considered throwing it down the drain, but it's nothing to write home about and unfortunately I wouldn't recommend it.

Brewed by Greene King Brewery, Suffolk
4.2% ABV

My rating:

My Untappd score: 2.5/5

Find out more at Greene King Brewery

Greene King IPA

I loved the colour of this one but unfortunately that's all I loved.  It's a beautiful copper toffee colour but it has a very loose head that disappeared in a matter of seconds.  It also has a very strange aroma: at first it is hoppy and metallic but then it reminded me of smelly stagnant water, like I often experience with Shepherd Neame ales.

It tastes a little bit malty, quite fresh and with a bitter aftertaste.  I was surprised that there was no hint of citrus as you would normally expect with an IPA, making me think that this should be labelled as a bitter rather than an IPA.  Despite its flat appearance the carbonation is quite harsh and it was an overall disappointing experience.

Brewed by Greene King, Bury St Edmunds

3.6% ABV

My rating:

Find out more at Green King