REVIEW #113: Butcombe Bitter (Butcombe Brewery)

Pours a dark amber with crisp white head possessing impressive retention for a bitter. Grassy, earthy sweet-tea notes float from nose. Quite a dry bitter, as I like them to be, with aromatic herbal hop and a muted caramel, sugar malt sweetness hiding in the background... Biscuit and golden syrup finish with the light tea notes detected in the nose finally showing up too. Needless to say the hop bitterness also carries through right to the end. The body is nice and firm and the carbonation spot on. This is about as good an example of an English bitter as there is to be had out there.

This award winning bitter has been around for a long time, getting on for 35 years in fact, and is a big deal down in the South West, recently out-selling Sharp's Doombar and St. Austell's Tribute in the area. The brewery get Fuller's to bottle their beers and for a long time only had this one bottle on the market until Butcombe Gold came along. This has been followed by Butcombe Blond, Rare Breed (brewed with farmer/TV guy Adam Henson) and Butcombe Brunel IPA. On cask look out for Mendip Spring, Old Vic Porter and Christmas Steps. Started by Simon & Maureen Whitmore in 1978, the couple sold the brewery in 2003 to Guy and Becky Newell. They moved into a brand new brewery in 2005 and this is one brewer to keep an eye on in 2013!

• MALTS: MARIS OTTER
• HOPS: UNDISCLOSED BLEND OF ENGLISH HOPS
• IBU: ?
• ABV: 4.5%
• Available from: morrisons
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------