Ilkley The Chief

Ooh look, thank you Mr Postman, some beers from Ilkley, for the purposes of a feature I am writing. Lots of noise about the brewery, especially in the frozen north, but sitting here in the more benevolent west I’m inclined to hold my tongue until I taste one, which is what I did with the 7% ‘triple hopped IPA’ The Chief last night. I rather enjoyed it as its zephyrs of ripe mango skin that have sat in a bowl with an audaciously blowsy orange swept out of the glass, while the demands on the palate were of the fiery, peppery, pleasingly and engagingly bitter kind, with enclaves of mango and orange sweetness, all whipped into line by the kind of dryness that demands to be sated time and time again with another hug-slug from the glass. Meanwhile, in another universe this beer lifts its leather-trousered, boot-clad leg and gets onto a Guzzi Cali and roars off along the highway.