Bath Ales Gem

Bath Ales new beer bar Beerd, pretty good pizza and beer 

So is this boring brown beer the colour of an old sideboard that has been polished slavishly by the family over the years yet still retains the gleam in the eye that caught the fancy of whoever bought it when they saw it and fell in love with it. It looks good in the glass in other words, a bit like an old sideboard that becomes part of the family (sentinent of course). Still in the glass, limpid almost, though the gleam and the condition suggest life. Is this limpidity a reflection, an homage to the old Bristolian preference for still Draught Bass, as was related to me recently? Do brewers think that deeply? Or marketeers? Maybe they do. Maybe they don’t. This is just an idle fantasy of mine at the end of the night. A drink if you don’t mind, of this bottle of Bath Ales Gem. I’m thinking Hessian sackcloth in a dry hay-barn after a thwack with a pole, chocolate digestive biscuit smugness though not without its attractions, more crunchy malted barley seeds that are handed out whenever one goes on an official brewery tour and a lasting bitter finale that sets me up for an encore. It might be boring and brown to some but it’s also a robust and roistering version of a best bitter that might just work with a chilli con carne.

Thanks to Bath Ales for sending me some beers — I’m researching a couple of Bristol beer features at the moment and the place is beer city west (also think Bristol Beer Factory, Arbor Ales and Zero Degrees for a start).