Harveys Bluebell Railway 50th Anniversary Ale
Purchased at Harvey's Brewery Shop, this ale is brewed to celebrate the 50 years of progress at the Bluebell Railway, made of malted barley, pinhead oats, Fuggle and Styrian Golding hops. Coming in a 500ml brown bottle, BB date unreadable, served cool in a straight imperial pint glass. A: pours a dark golden hue with fairly moderate level of carbonation and good clarity, plus a well-lasting off-white foamy head on the top. S: intriguing, like one would expect from a golden bitter - the aroma is mainly dusty, zingy citric, orangey citric, slightly stinky and backed by a pretty mild whiff of salty-sweet pale malts. A good swirl brings out a tinge of Harveys' typical sweet tea-ish caramel+maltiness. T: the foretaste comes mildly sweet and semi-sour as of malts plus oxidised fruits, floral hints and starch, followed by a palate of moderate herbal bitterness and chewiness that lingers along with more sour-ish and salty aftertaste as of yeastiness. I can't quite locate oats in the flavour, maybe it's well integrated with malts and also because I've never had "pinhead oats" before. M&D: the fizziness is light and not too much, the body is light to thin-ish, while the flavour overall is a bit too pale to present oats+malts or hops to a decent extent. Hence to me, this is a pretty average product all in all.