Wold Top 'Golden Summer'

A confession to something of a local bias - I grew up near Driffield (my Mum worked there) and I have tried Wold Top's beers before courtesy of Roberts & Speight, who used to be my local wine merchants and off licence when I was far too young to be appreciating these sorts of things.

Having said that, I was prepared to be quite underwhelmed by Golden Summer. There are an awful lot of low to mid strength pale beers knocking about, and so many of them are very samey. When I was in a pub this weekend I tried three different ones which tasted so similar it seemed to be something of a misuse of two beer engines and space in the cellar.

Rant aside, this was actually very good - far from being another also-ran. It might have been because it was brewed up to 4.4% but they've done a good job of getting some character into the beer. There is a sneaky hop bite to it but it's not an American style hop-monster, you have to go looking for it lurking amongst the barley, which makes it all the more interesting!

Only criticism is that it seems a bit of an injustice to call it a summer beer - I reckon I'd be happy to drink this at any time of year. Hoping to get a chance to try it on tap - preferably in place of a bland, pale, 3.5% 'session' Deuchars IPA/Oakham JHB/Castle Rock Harvest Pale copy.

4.4% abv. £1.89 (50cl) from Sainsbury's