Bath Ale's Gem

Bath Ale's Gem

Style: Amber Ale

Alcohol Content: 4.8%

From: Warmley, Bristol, UK

                                                           Purchased from: Cost Cutter

Bath Ales is a brewery located in the town of Warmley, Bristol, north-west of Bath, England. The brewery was established in 1995 by former employees of Smiles Brewery in Bristol. Since that time, it has experienced steady growth, which included opening a new bottling plant in 2007. The brewery uses simple label artwork, featuring a dashing hare. It brews eight beers, which are sold in both the cask and the bottle.

The seasonal ales are Festivity (5.0% abv), a seasonal rum porter; Rare Hare (5.2% abv), a seasonal premium bitter and Dark Hare (4.0% abv), a seasonal stout. Regular beers include Gem (4.1% abv), a best bitter; Barnstormer (4.5% abv), a dark bitter; SPA (3.7% abv), a golden pale ale; Wild Hare (5.0% abv), an organic golden pale ale and Golden Hare (4.4% abv), a light ale. Natural Blonde (5.0% abv) is an organic pilsener lager, which is brewed at Budelse Brouwerij, Budel, Netherlands.

A Rare Gem!

Colour: A dark chestnut brown which seems a bit strange given that his is an amber ale. For some reason i was expecting a light amber colour rather than the chestnut i was presented with. I can remember sampling this beer at one of bath ales pubs in oxford called The Grapes and I remember it being paler or maybe it was sample size. That being said, it looks like a bitter in the glass. On the pour you get a very inviting and thick white head. The head will linger for awhile reducing to a small bit of foam.

Aroma: Just like the colour, you can really smell warm chestnuts covered in sticky brown molasses or sugar. It smells so Christmassy, that I wanted to put the decorations back up. On the Christmas theme, you can also pick up notes of cinnamon and pepper the deeper you smell. I can just imagine myself having a couple of these with my old man down a pub down in Somerset. Ah bliss! What more do you want from life?

Body: This beer is a little heavier than it looks so enjoy it slowly. The mouth feel feels like a bitter as its velvety smooth, rich and satisfying. Full and temping this beer just keeps inviting you to have another sip. So get involved and try some.

Taste: Now we come to the most important part of the review. The tasting. On your first sip, you will receive notes of sweet treacle with a refreshing dry finish. It's almost as if you are eating a sticky toffee pudding (unfortunately minus the custard, and I love custard). On the second sip, you should be able to pick out notes of the chestnuts I mentioned earlier and hints of brown bread. For me, everything about this beer screams that its a bitter. For those that know me I love my bitters. Yum yum!

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