Thornbridge Wild Swan

Thornbridge Wild Swan

Style: White Gold Pale Ale

Alcohol Content: 3.5%

From: Bakewell, Derbyshire, England, UK

Purchased from: Waitrose

The Thornbridge Brewery is an independent brewery formerly situated in the grounds of Thornbridge Hall near Bakewell, Derbyshire, England. Its first beers went on sale in February 2005. Thornbridge's beers were originally brewed by Martin Dickie, a graduate of the International Center for Distilling and Brewing at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, and Stefano Cossi, a graduate in Food Science and Technology at Udine University, Italy. In 2007, Dickie left to start Brew Dog however the brewery has not suffered from this loss.

More than 130 awards have been won by Thornbridge's brews since its opening, including the Silver Medal (Strong Ales) at the Great British Beer Festival (August 2006) for Jaipur IPA (and for Kipling in August 2009), the Gold Medal in August 2008 in the same category, and a Bronze Medal in the Bitters category in August 2009 also. As of July 2010, Jaipur held 70 industry awards after only 5 years of production. 2010 also saw a prestigious World Beer Cup medal added to the cabinet for the limited release Chestnut Honey ale, Bracia. High praise indeed. For this review i will be looking at their White Gold Pale Ale called Wild Swan.

Colour: Very pale in colour so much so It's almost transparent. Like the name of this beer, the colour is almost like gold. As the drink warms, the colour will darken slightly adding a slight brown hue to the beer. On the pour you get a lovely thick white head and you will also notice that this beer is very heavily carbonated. After a minute or two in the glass this will die down and the brew becomes almost flat.

Aroma: On the nose, you will be bombarded with beautifully ripe citrus notes. It's almost like a glass of cloudy lemonade with hints of freshly cut grass. If you get close enough you can also pick out hints of grapefruit. Like all beers of high quality, the smell will stay with you though out the pint.

Body: This beer is extremely light and refreshing. Like the smell, the body is like a glass of cloudy lemonade. Once the carbonation dies down, the flat beer really hits the spot. Its a lovely easy drinking beer that can be enjoyed in a beer garden. I can just imagine myself enjoying this beer with my friends in Kingston upon Thames on a long hot summers day. Ah bliss! Now this next statement may be a bit controversial but I really believe that this beer as the potential to covert those pesky flavored cider drinkers over to the craft revolution.

Taste: On my first sip, this beer reminds me of a gin and tonic. You get heavy notes of Juniper berries and bitter lemon. It is almost like a adult lemonade with a hint of bitterness. Think hooch with a twist. As the beer warms, the flavors dull slightly. Now I'm not sure if this is because I was getting use to the beer or that the flavors where not to intense, but either way the flavors were not smacking me in the chops like before. It's a shame really as its the only negative part of this beer.

I Heard you where a Wild One!

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