Thwaites Crafty Dan Big Ben
Style: Brown Ale
Alcohol Content: 5.8%
From: Blackburn, England, United Kingdom
Purchased from: Wine Rack,Weybridge, UK
This Sunday i headed into Putney to visit the gents at the Beer Boutique bottle shops. I was rather impressed by the variety of beers on offer and how the beers were arranged by style rather brewery. For a reviewer, this helps you balance out what you purchase ensuring that you can cover an array of styles. Needless to say, my wallet took a major hit as i came away with a staggering fifteen beers. Highlights include: Durham Brewery White Stout, Thornbridge Halcyon and Sharp's Quadruple Ale. Naturally all of these will appear on my blog at some point. So stayed tuned!
Thwaites Brewery is a regional brewery founded in 1807 by Daniel Thwaites in Blackburn, Lancashire, England. The firm still operates from its original town centre site. A variety of cask ales, draught beers, lagers and ciders are produced in Blackburn or imported from Europe by Thwaites. In 2011 the brewery opened a small Micro brewery called Crafty Dan and since 2013 they have been bottling three of their favorites. One of them is the subject of this review, Crafty Dan's Big Ben.
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| That's really big! |
Colour: Pours a dark brown with a light tan head. You could be mistaken in thinking you are about to sample a porter or an old school beamish given the slight red hue. The head does not stay around very long but a dusting of foam will follow you throughout the duration of this beer.
Aroma: Strong, spicy hops follow straight out of the bottle. This is promptly followed by citrus and freshly cut grass, wrapped in a sweet maltiness. Excellent stuff. The blending of six unique hops help to create this exciting bouquet. These are Fuggles, Goldings, Challenger, Citra, Chinook and Summit. How on earth did they fit all of that into the hopper?
Body: A lot lighter in your mouth than you would expect. This comes from the sweetness of the malt, which when combined with the six hops, creates a velvety smooth drink that does not clog your throat. Lovely stuff!
Taste: Notes of sweet toffee nut, which leads to a creamy bitter finish. It reminds me of a quality street chocolate called The Purple One (a hazelnut with caramel). The hops create a very long, bitter finish. I wasn't expecting too much from this beer but I was pleasantly surprised. It's certainly a beer that I would revisit and even recommend to my mum (see always raids the quality street tin for the Purple One at Christmas).
Aroma: Strong, spicy hops follow straight out of the bottle. This is promptly followed by citrus and freshly cut grass, wrapped in a sweet maltiness. Excellent stuff. The blending of six unique hops help to create this exciting bouquet. These are Fuggles, Goldings, Challenger, Citra, Chinook and Summit. How on earth did they fit all of that into the hopper?
Body: A lot lighter in your mouth than you would expect. This comes from the sweetness of the malt, which when combined with the six hops, creates a velvety smooth drink that does not clog your throat. Lovely stuff!
Taste: Notes of sweet toffee nut, which leads to a creamy bitter finish. It reminds me of a quality street chocolate called The Purple One (a hazelnut with caramel). The hops create a very long, bitter finish. I wasn't expecting too much from this beer but I was pleasantly surprised. It's certainly a beer that I would revisit and even recommend to my mum (see always raids the quality street tin for the Purple One at Christmas).
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| Porter in disguise? |
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