Brewery: Thornbridge
Location: Ashford in the Water, Derbyshire, England
ABV: 4.2%
Version: Draught
Source: Marble Arch, Manchester

After heading to The Angel to celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary with a meal and a couple of pints of their (pale, hoppy, fresh and orangey) Angel Bitter, Jo and I headed up the road to the Marble Arch to see what delights they were offering. Perusing the pumps, I spotted and made a bee-line for Thornbridge’s Ashford New World Brown Ale.

I was extremely glad that I did, too. Thornbridge Ashford is a hugely drinkable nut brown ale with big, chocolate and faint coffee flavours and an extremely smooth, satisfying finish. Weighing in at 4.2% it makes for an ideal session beer and that’s pretty much (with the exception of a quick segue onto Brampton Wasp Nest for the penultimate pint of the evening) what I did.

Definitely not a boring, bog-standard bitter, Ashford is one I’d recommend without hesitation and one I’d happily go back to in future. No idea how it compares to the legendary Thornbridge Jaipur, as I still haven’t managed to find that one on draught just yet, but I’m hoping I’ll be able to rectify that in a couple of weeks and will report back if and when I do…