Style: English IPA
Brewery: Thornbridge Brewery
Origin: England
Size: 44cl
Alcohol: 5.5%
Price: 34kr
Systembolaget: 13091
Thornbridge Brewery was founded in 2005 by Jim Harrison and Simon Webster. The brewery is located in buildings adjacent to the Thornbridge Hall estate, which is just south of Sheffield. In 2009 another brewery was built at Riverside, Bakewell. It has been brewed with Low Colour Maris Otter, Rye malt, Caramalt and Dark Crystal malts and hopped with Amarillo, Vic Secret and Idaho 7. I knew I wanted at least one English style IPA in the tasting, and as Thornbridge has a reputation for quality, it seemed like an obvious choice.
This had a gorgeous, clean mahogany hue to it, with a thick white head that held for a long time. The aroma was light but pleasant, with caramel notes at the forefront with a touch of fresh grass in the back. There was also a hint of smoke in the background with gave the aroma some presence. The taste was full, with robust hits of caramel, toffee, grapefruit peel, moss and fresh grass blending together beautifully. The taste was rather short, but left a pleasant residue on the palate. It had a medium to low carbonation level, which rounded out this beer well.
This was a hearty and mature ale that bought life to the old school English IPA style, and I’m glad we had this in the tasting. I couldn’t fault this, and I think it might be one of my favourite beers that I had in this tasting. Well worth checking out if you can find it, especially at the rather low price.