Brewery: Backyard Brewhouse
Location: Walsall, England
Style: Authentic Old English IPA
ABV: 6.2%
Version: Bottled
Source: MyBreweryTap.com

The first of three rather excellent beers that I enjoyed this Bank Holiday weekend, The Backyard Brewhouse’s East India (“Authentic Old English IPA”) was also the second-to-last bottle left in the beer cupboard from the MyBreweryTap Spring 2010 Mixed Case that I invested in a couple of months ago.

East India poured a beautifully clear gold with a thick, tight white head. The initial flavour-burst offered deep, rich caramel malt, quickly cut through with a refreshing, sharply-contrasting hop-bite. Over the course of the bottle I also got hints of sweet honey, fiery ginger and zingy citrus, all wrapped up in a long, lingering dry finish. A wonderfully balanced beer. Deeply satisfying, deeply delicious. I’d definitely be happy to stock up on this one if I saw it again, although judging by the Backyard Brewhouse website, it’s only an occasional brew, so that could be tricky.

Oh, and I almost had to nick Mark Dredge’s FABPOW concept for this post as I supped my bottle of East India whilst tucking into a particularly tasty home-made pork burger (minced pork, grated apple, fresh sage, mint, rosemary, lots of black pepper, oats to bind it all into patties, then grilled to perfection and topped with melted red leicester) but I was just too busy tucking in to take a pic. But you can take my word for it: extremely good combination.