Beer- #291 – Townshend – Hollandale’s Premium Best

Something a bit more mainstream, a Townshend Hollandale’s Premium Best. Brewed by Townshend Brewery in this style of an Premium Bitter/ESB and that is the mysterious Upper Moutere, New Zealand.

500ml bottle, that’s just shy of a ‘pint’, of a 5.3% ABV beer, making that 2.1 standard drink units. Whopping 159 calories a serve

Look it’s a Selfie !

Dales Brewing Co produces an award winning Belgian Ale that we here at Townshend’s thoroughly enjoy. As fans of Dale’s brews, we approached him to ask if he’d mind letting us use his exact same recipe but with a cheeky English Ale yeast instead if his Belgian choice. Here is the result: A smooth, malty ESB. Thanks Dale. You are a star.

Very lively on opening, grassy hoppy, the top runneth over.

Pours a lovely dark chestnut brown, with a lovely amount of foamy and persistent head. It is very lively in the glass. IT really does look magnificent and if only it was based on looks I’d be hooked.

I could’t help myself I took a goodly mouthful of this, and I thought, this is very British beer like. Which isn’t abad thing

The flavour profile is all in the middle.

It’s all grassy hops. The carbonation gives your tongue a tickle and there is a nod to a caramel finish, but if you drew a bell curve you’ve pretty much drawn the flavour hit for this.

This isn’t overly bitter, and it’s not offensive, although the hopiness note does scream bit in the middle.

The pdubyah-o-meter says that this is solid and 8’s for your mates. Very good.

This looks great, pours great, had a great head, leaves a decent lacing, is light, refreshing and easy easy to drink. But the bitterness and the loud hop in the middle is a bit off-putting and may stop you after a couple of making this a session beer. I’d happily sit with a few of these, couple of mates and some inconsequential sport on in the background and tell lies like a boss.

But it’s not memorable despite being very good. Bit like the choice of music I have on,

Speaking of the music, I have on for this is the toe tapping Arctic Monkeys Album, AM – and this is the track that has no relevance to me at all – Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High? The style and delivery is their own and you couldn’t mistake them for any other band. They might be taking themselves a bit serious, perhaps they need the money.

PREMIUM BITTER/ESB

In England, many breweries have a number of bitters in their range. The style that has come to be known as Premium or Special Bitter generally includes the stronger ( 4.6%-6.0%) examples. These are mostly served in the traditional way from the cask, but some are also found in bottle form where the extra malt allows them to stand up better than the more delicate ordinary Bitter. In the US, the designation ESB is common for this style, owing to the influence of Fuller’s ESB, the London brew that was among the first to be exported to the States. In the US, some ESBs are made with American hops and a clean yeast, but the alcohol range is the same, as is the range of bitterness, usually between 25 and 35 but occasionally creeping higher.