Great British Beer Festival 2010, tasting notes via Twitter (1)

Earl’s Court: Wednesday Evening session

• Downton Chocolate Orange Delight. Surprisingly non-gimmicky and palatable. Smooth, sweet.
• Cairngorm Black Gold: slightly peaty, smoky, quite sweet, a hint of liquorice and the familiar Cairngorm grapefruit/elderberry mix
• Highland Orkney Blast: very hoppy, very bitter, almost lime in there, slightly sweet but some hints of camphor
• Brewsters Hop a Doodle Do, less hoppy than expected, a rounded beer http://tweetphoto.com/36824806
• Daleside Old Legover: yeasty, almost bready aroma, flavour is a nice mix of smoky, sweet malt and bitter.
• Glastonbury Lady of the Lake: strong, fruity nose, a little tart, hoppy and malty at the same time, light and throaty.
• Beowulf Strong Mild: lovely, rich dark aroma, but very strong, almost syrupy taste. Great old ale, but not a session beer...
• Nottingham Rock Ale Mild: gentle aroma, slightly disappointingly mild, a bit of peat, raisin and plum. "smells like a tube station"
• Salopian Shropshire Lass: fruity and hoppy, full-flavoured, a little bit lambic, a little tart. Pleasant, though.
• Abbeydale Doctor Morton's Milk of Amnesia: light and wheaty, but unexpectedly smoky. Belgian. Banana. Yeasty.