Golden Pride - Fuller Smith & Turner PLC

TheManiacalOne

Rhode Island

4.18/5  rDev +4.2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

On nitro-tap 4/10/08 at British Beer Company in Walpole, MA, served in a US tumbler pint glass.

A: The beer is a dark gold color, with a large, dense off-white head that fades very slowly and leaves a very thick lace on the glass.

S: The aroma is of caramelized malts, nuts, tea, some honey and some hops.

T: The taste is nicely balanced with flavors of caramel, honey and tea. There's a mild but complimentary hops presence. The malt character is hearty but not too heavy. The after-taste is slightly sweet.

M: Crisp and very smooth, medium body, medium carbonation, finish is clean.

D: Tasty, goes down very easy, not too filling, good kick, nice representation of style, this is a very good beer that I could stick with for the duration of the evening.

Serving type: nitro-tap

04-11-2008 14:53:57 | More by TheManiacalOne

BEERchitect

Kentucky

4.25/5  rDev +6%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Pazzo's took the Ole Winter Ale off tap for a few hours to share this treasure of a beer with their patrons. Certainly glad I was there. This beer is quite special, reminding me of the Vintage Ales, with a more subdued alcohol complex and power in the flavors. The first sip delivers a plethera of complexity, tons of flavors, and spicy character. Certainly rests on a foundation, built on malts. Shows a lot of cotton-candy sweetness, berries, cherries, dates, figs, plumbs, nuts, caramel, and lightly toasted breads. Balanced by firm, pungent hops with a faint herbal tone. Alcohols are warming, but weave nicely into the complex malts until they are hardly noticed. Finishes sweet, but balanced and with a long sherry-like lingering.

Serving type: on-tap

01-03-2008 21:11:46 | More by BEERchitect

the42ndtourist

Ontario (Canada)

4.4/5  rDev +9.7%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

I think this ranks as the strongest British Ale I've had yet (as in ales brewed in Britain), which I suppose explains why my English friends would describe this as akin to a single malt scotch. Not quite, I say... that's Samichlaus's territory. This is more of a watered down cognac, to complete the metaphor.

On cask at The Old Ale House, Truro, Cornwall (that's the English county, rather than the Canadian town). A deep gold with ruby tinges at the right angles. Head doesn't show very long (and it shouldn't as this bar pours a proper pint of cask ale), and is white with large bubbles while it is around. The nose betrays some of the same characteristics of a standard English ale. The taste is sweet, with caramel malt playing wreaths around the lighter golden sugar style sweetness (did I mention that this was sweet). Hops touch and go at the edges, but never fully land. They merely threaten bitterness with some slight earthiness.

Don't confuse with a scotch heavy ale after all my talk of caramel malt. This is much lighter in colour and texture. Someone mentioned golden syrup, and that does seem a fairly good analogue. Just with a little more depth of flavour than the aforementioned syrup. It's very good, I like it.

Serving type: cask

12-16-2003 14:14:36 | More by the42ndtourist