A worthy legacy to the original Burton ales.

Pin It Now! During the Beer Bloggers Conference in London, I had my first taste of White Shield and I was not impressed. I was not happy with that because I had heard great things so I wondered was it palate fatigue?

Enter Kristy McCready from Molson Coors who said she would send me a bottle of each of the Worthington's beers to try at my leisure.
As it turns out, someone misunderstood her instructions and sent me a case of each beer. I'm not complaining and I will pass some on to TheBeerNut, another Irish blogger. Keep an eye out for his report at a later date.

This time around White Shield was a different beer. I could taste almost nothing before so it was certain palate fatigue. What a lovely beer this is. The colour indicates this is going to be a fairly malt driven beer, and it is. The aroma is all dried fruits, orange marmalade, caramel and what reminds me of figs.
In the mouth there is a very full mouth feel and it starts off with a sort of wine like, fruity marmalade but then switches to a bitter orange and dry finish. I will enjoy a lot more of these. My wife gave it the thumbs up too. I will be sad when my supply runs out as I don't believe it is available here... yet...

I did enjoy Red Shield a little more at the conference, however I think that was because it suited my fatigued palate better where as White Shield was trying to force some complexity on me, Red Shield was being dutifully dull. That was then so what about now that I have it all to myself with no beery distractions? Well I found the aroma was dominated by lemon sherbet and the taste was likewise. Lots of lemon citrus and a little yeast. A very refreshing summer beer. There is not a lot of residual sugar so you are left with a dry and somewhat bitter blonde ale. My wife also gave the thumbs up to this, though we both preferred White Shield.

And now on to two beers that did not make it to BBC11. The first up is simply called "E". I don't know why that is exactly, the best I can come up with is that there was a Bass ale by the same name in the 70's but I don't know why that beer was called "E".
As beers go, this aint half bad though. The aroma was like sticky toffee pudding meets aged, sweet fruitcake. This smells like it is a big beer, like an old aged ale. It put me in mind of Fullers vintage ale. It smells lovely and warming but I knew from the ABV of 4.8% that it was not going to be like that. Once I tasted it, I was momentarily disappointed to find it lacking the body and feel of a vintage ale but again, I reminded myself that it is not supposed to and I accepted the beer for what it is. In addition to the strong fruitcake type flavours, I detected a woody and spiciness that I found beautiful and then enjoyed the strong flavours and thin body of this eminently drinkable beer.

Another short name here, P2 is an imperial stout. Yay for imperial stouts! In fact, P2 is supposed to be a recreation of the original strong stouts sent to St. Petersburg in imperial Russia. Perhaps the P2 is short for St. Petersburg 2? 

Anyway where do you start with an 8% Well the pour is perfect for a start. A lovely thick tan head and the beer is dark, very dark in fact. The aroma is also perfect. Subtle wood-smoke, vanilla and liquorice. 

All of the aroma is infused in the flavour and really shines through and you then have the addition of burnt espresso beans. This is a wonderfully warming beer that is surprisingly easy to drink. You can sip it and contemplate or if you want to down it, there is that option but it might not be a good idea to down an 8% pint of beer. At the very least it would be a waste, the point is though that it is a light enough beer that you could drink it fast and not notice the 8% creeping up on you.

I absolutely must have this on cask some time. I would say it is too much to ask for Kristy to send me a cask of P2 though.... However if someone could see their way to load one on to a pallet and sell to one of our cask serving pubs, I will gladly travel to Dublin and consume a few pints of it, as I imagine would most of the craft beer community in Ireland.

A big thank you to Kristy and Molson Coors for allowing me to try these wonderful  beers.

I am all the more saddened by Steve Wellington's retirement now and understand why there were some teary eyed bloggers at BBC11.