28 May 2016

Chiron Beer (Waitrose) [By @SpectreUK]


I do enjoy a good pint or two of pale ale. The Thornbridge brewery in Bakewell, in the UK, brewed this Chiron American Pale Ale. The 5% volume golden pale ale was brewed with Thornbridge’s mantra of “innovation”, I guess for brewing an American pale ale in England, “passion”, which makes me think that this beer was brewed by a bunch of people who probably drunk most of each batch before it was bottled, and finally “knowledge”, possibly of how to have a sneaky swig while the boss isn’t looking.

I tried to look up why this beer might be called “Chiron”. Apparently, so my source of all things knowledgeable (not Cinabar this time; Wikipedia instead) tells me a Chiron in Greek mythology was the oldest and wisest Centaur, who served as a teacher of the youth; a ‘Centaur mentor’ so to speak. That seemed good enough for me, but it didn’t go anywhere near in explaining the image of a women with an ample cleavage on the front of the bottle, but it caught my eye, so what the hey!

On opening the pale ale there was the hoppy citrus smell I was expecting. On taste there was an instant citrusy bitter delight from the hops, which levelled out in each mouthful to the biscuity malted barley flavour the label had mentioned. It was this flavour description that had first tuned me into wanting to write a blog about this finely balanced American pale ale. Its initial hoppy citrus smell and flavour wakes up the palate with a swift kick, then to be superbly balanced by that delicious malted barley flavour that works its way into the aftertaste. A fine beer that I’d hope our American friends would think quite innovative, brewed and drunk with passion, and finally the knowledge to buy it again at the first opportunity!
By Spectre

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