Bottle Bitter
Bitter (or pale ale) can be used to describe an ale that is sold on draught and can range in alcohol from 3% to 7.5% ABV, although most Bitter tend to be at the lower alcohol levels. In the UK Bitter can be sold as cask conditioned or keg. The latter involves carbonation at the brewery and filtering to remove yeast and other insolubles before they are eventually pasteurised. Cask conditioned bitter is a traditional type of brewing that goes back hundreds of years and it is characterised by allowing the ale to ferment both in the cask and sometimes in bottles. No pasteurisation takes place and as such it can be a difficult ale to create well and to store to a high standard.
There is an old style tapestry design on the front of the bottle portraying two knights jousting and on the back there appears to be a medieval wench being hanged. Charming. Nice olde English design though – very apt given the name of the brew. The beer has quite a sweet, malty nose and it pours very dark. Not quite a jet black standard stout colour but not far off. For a bottle conditioned ale I expected Bad King John to retain a nice head but within a minute or…
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