Thursday, May 17, 2012

Real Ale Review - Thunder Holt by Joseph Holt

Hi I'm Steve's mate Alex and I share his passion for drinking real ale, it's all in my name - Ale-x... Sorry, *cough* anyway a while ago Steve asked me if I'd write some reviews of ales I've been drinking to his add to his blog.

Please bear in mind I have no experience of craft brewing, I'm purely a drinker, so any blogs I write will probably reflect this. I honestly couldn't say if something tastes of this or that hop etc.

Tonight the wife brought me home an ale locally brewed in Manchester by the Joseph Holt brewery.  It's described on the bottle as a russet red ale with light citrus flavours of challenger hops and rich undertones of dark crystal malt. Rated at 5% abv.




Pouring - it pours well with a bit of a bubbly head that doesn't last particularly long. In fact it was all but vanished by the time I was half way through.
Colour  - to my eye it is a lovely reddish chestnut brown.
Aroma - a pleasant slightly burnt bitter scent that is just strong enough to be interesting but doesn't quite punch you in the face.
Taste - well balanced between bitter and citrus sour flavours with just a hint of burnt treacle that leaves an enjoyable dry tingle on the tongue.
When - for me this ale would work well with a spicy meal such as lamb balti where the gentle bitterness would create an interesting counter balance to heat of the spices whilst the burnt treacle undertones will bring out the richness of the lamb.
Conclusion - This isn't the most exciting of ales out there, however because it's not an overpoweringly strong flavoured drink I could see myself enjoying a two or three of these over the course of an evening, maybe more in the right company.

Score - 6/10




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