Healthy, hearty, heady Extra Special Bitter counters heavy grain influence and silken yeast sweetness with vinous grape touch. Toasted barleymalts enrich edgy hop bitterness matching pungent earthy aroma. Well balanced and sturdy from first swallow to finish.

Satisfactory amber-clouded bottle-conditioned dry-hopped Bitter retains ripe cherry overtones, spritzy carbolic fizz, and fuzzy soft water flow. Sustained grain briskness, though moderated, recalls British pilsners.

Middling phenol-fizzed bitter loses Fuggle-hopped sass as well as barley-roasted toffee-butterscotch sweetness by unresolved cereal grain finish. Raspberry-cider tartness dissipates in tea-like midst.

Wispily aromatic tangerine zesting prickled by spiced hop phenols as bright tropical fruiting serenades thinly sinewed butterscotch-yeast pleasantries juxtaposing smoky peat malting of dry bitter. Softly settling mocha finish punctuated by maple-cedar wood tones and ashen earthiness.

Well-rounded English-styled Bitter connects initial barley-roasted earthiness to sweetly soured clover-honeyed cocoa-powdered mocha muck. Rye-pumpernickel breading and recurrent dried cherry-apple sweetness broaden scope. Damning phenolic astringency is only drawback.

Boorish swamp water overwhelms indistinguishable ale. One of the most pretentious English ales on the market and too ornery for serious brewhounds. Pass.

Beige-headed amber-bodied cask-conditioned ale offers soft-toned Vienna-styled pale malts, delicate spicy seasoning, and elegant sweet yeast persistence. Soothing finish remains clean, efficient, and mild.

Earthen mineral-grained copper-hazed organic ale brings dry Scotch malting, tobacco-tinged barley roast, and wafted breadcrumb sniff to blanched resin hop stead. Herbal tea midst locates slimmest citrus, quince, and sherry illusions above walnut singe. ’09 re-tasting brought butterscotch frontage to burnt orange backdrop.

Chaotic fizzy grained sweetness merely gets in the way of off-dry mild hop bittering and thin berry afterburner, becoming too predictable by dissolving cracked wheat finish. Grapefruit-orange peel souring needs sharper identity.

Traditional cask-conditioned bitter places floral hop bittering above buttered caramelized wheat setting. Earthen geranium rusticity softens tertiary lemony berry hints, but soapy finish lowers its appeal, nipping redeeming citric spiciness.

Crisp copper-toned medium body retains persistent floral hop bittering to rich mineral-grained finish. Thin yeast sinew forms at the head as crystal malt sugaring serenades pleasing piney maple and sweet vanilla undertones.

Satisfying amber-hazed bitter with resonating mineral grain entry and invigorating creamy malt richness maintains strong alcohol content. Satisfying on many levels: not too bitter for lite-minded blue collar drinkers nor too soft for snobby connoisseurs. Brewery defunct: 2007.