Scottish & Newcastle UK Ltd.
Edinburgh, Scotland
Imported by: Newcastle Importers
White Plains, NY
Available: CA, NC, SC, VA
From the home of Newcastle Brown Ale, nicknamed “the dog” in England, a summer beer brewed exclusively for the export market.
ABV: 4.4
ABW: 3.5
Bitterness: 26
Original gravity: n/a
If they could bottle summer sunlight, it would pour out looking like this. Pouring a gorgeous sunbeam yellow with a cumulus-cloud white head that dissipates to a slight skiff, grassy-earthy aromas greet the nose in this summer offering. A sturdy bitterness comes on strong at first sip, with a slight sweetness sneaking in near the middle. A drying astringency and a lingering bitterness enter at the finish line, enticing you to take another sip. A great beer to pair with summer activities -- and summertime foods such as barbecue, seafood and salads.
Brewed by Caledonian in Scotland for export to the US: this is not a beer known on our side of the Atlantic. My eyes and nose detect a fair amount of promise – an appealing golden colour, and an aroma filled with sharp red berry-like fruit and honeyed malt. Unusually, there are more sharp berry flavours in the bittersweet taste. Sadly, it all comes over as a bit tired and dull, and the overall impression is of a decent beer fighting against the packaging process and struggling to get out. Hopefully, I just received a duff sample.
Lisa Morrison, aka The Beer Goddess, writes about beer whenever she can and also gets to talk about it on a weekly radio show in her hometown of Portland, OR.
Author of the Good Bottled Beer Guide and The Book of Beer Knowledge, Jeff Evans is an eight-time editor of the CAMRA Good Beer Guide and one of Britain's best-known beer writers.
Thu Jun 28th, 2012
The Events of Beer
Dinners, tastings, festivals, seminars, gatherings of all sorts. It’s that time of year, folks, when every weekend and most weekdays there is an “event of beer” within driving distance of...
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Newcastle Summer Ale is definitely a summer beer we want to taste in 2012. Unfortunately, it is difficult to find in some parts of the country.