Beer from the West: Butcombe Gold

Recently SWMBO’s best friend visited with her partner from Oxfordshire. As when anyone offers to bring something over from the Motherland I make up a beer wish list. Unfortunately after making a truly geeked out list, I rewrote it deciding I was being overly detailed. Predictably the beers that arrived were unfortunately all ones I have tasted and many were ones you could regularly pick up at the supermarket. However all was not in vain as tasting a beer that has been air freighted in is often a very different experience to drinking one that has sweltered through the tropics in a shipping container.

Butcombe Gold was the beer I was most interested in as I had only tasted it once before and the sample I had was rather tired. Thankfully this fresh flown in bottle was in great nick.
Butcombe is one of the ‘old guard’ of English micros having been set up in the late 70’s. Located in Somerset it’s a home county favourite of Bailey of Boak and Bailey fame. Butcombe Gold is Golden Bitter hopped with Fuggels and was the first beer to be added to the range after 18 years of only brewing Butcombe Bitter.

Butcombe Gold 4.7%abv

Butcombe Gold pours a mid gold with a big enthusiastic white head. The aroma features sweet candied fruit, with definite hints of citrus. On the palate there is citrus fruit, sweet malt and an earthy finish all carried by a light mouth feel, very clean drinkable golden ale.