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 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

Adnams Triple Knot

Having tried quite a few Adnams ales, I was really looking forward to trying this one.  Just look at the beautiful bottle with the old fashioned bottle stopper; full marks to Adnams for presentation.  Unfortunately, that's the only full marks I was able to give them.

The beautiful golden colour is slightly let down by the very thin white head that disappears in the blink of an eye.  Now I know that beauty isn't only skin deep so I moved in for a sniff and oh my goodness, it smelled like I had poured a fruit liqueur over some fermented fruit.  I was almost afraid to taste it, but needs must!

No no no, this isn't beer is it?  With flavours of fruit and honey it reminded me of the sweet wines you taste when you go on the excursions to vineyards in Spain.  Sickly sweet, intensely fruity and extremely low in carbonation, it tasted more like a Madeira wine than a beer to me.

Far too odd for my taste and unfortunately one Ale NOT Be Seeing Again.  Adnams have got so much right with their core ales like Broadside, Southwold and Ghost Ship but they got so much wrong with this Triple Knot.  Of course, it wasn't completely undrinkable and I've never left a beer unfinished yet, but it's a bit of a Marmite beer and I'm not in the 'Love It' camp.

Brewed by Adnams, Suffolk
10% ABV

My rating:

Find out more at Adnams Brewery