I am sure that we have all heard the saying ‘It’s not the size but what you do with it’, well that is certainly the case when it comes to table beers. This particular style really shows the skills (& sometimes lack of them) of breweries as they look to brew beers that are flavour packed yet come in at a low strength.
In this review we take a look at a collaboration table beer brewed by two formidable breweries, Pomona Island & Thornbridge called Riding With The Ghost which is simply described as a small pale.
Can these two brewing titans show that size does not really matter?
1. Name : Riding With The Ghost
2. Brewery: Pomona Island (Salford) & Thornbridge (Bakewell)
3. Hops : Enigma, Mosaic, El Dorado & Talus
4. Grain : Barley, Oats & Wheat
5. Aroma : Juicy hop aroma that suggests what is about to come on the palate is going to be something pretty fine.
6. Appearance : Pours a hazy light straw colour with a lively, fluffy two to three finger white head. Be careful how you pour this as traces of sediment are visible at the bottom of the glass.
7. Body : As expected for a beer of this strength this has a light body.
8. Taste : Juicy, zesty, punchy tropical fruit flavours with a pleasant, lingering hop bitterness.
The first thing that struck me about this beer was the pretty simplistic artwork on the can with an owl sat atop of the beer name and the simple description of Small Pale. This to me highlights that even before the beer is poured Pomona Island & Thornbridge are confident in their work to such a degree that they are letting the beer sell itself.
When it comes to the actual beer this looks very light, yet also very appealing in the glass with a nice lingering head. Straight away as it was poured, I knew that this would be a beer that you could easily session on. The aroma has a fantastic array of flavours from all four hops coming to the fore giving off a juicy, yet zesty and punchy fruit nose that certainly has the mouth-watering even before this is tasted.
In terms of flavour this one is certainly not lacking with the fine aromas carrying forward to the taste with the juicy, zesty and punchy tropical flavours evident with each mouthful making this as expected a highly sessionable beer indeed.
All I can say is a big well done to Pomona Island & Thornbridge who, with Riding With The Ghost have produced something that really does go to show that size does not matter.
Our overall rating: 3.7/ 5.0
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