Townshend’s Thunder Drum.

 

I only looked at the main label without reading the small print so that I wouldn’t be influenced by any of their comments and it was the first beer of the night so that the palette was clean.

I also used a glass to maximise any fragrance that would help with the taste.

First pour and the glass was immediately engulfed with foamy white head that needed several minutes to disintegrate back down to a drinkable liquid.

I quickly took a sniff from the foamy head and noted a pleasant smell of a light malt ale with a hint of hops. The label did read an ale so I’m thinking this could be quite nice.

I didn’t quite have the patience for the head to dissolve, so took an excited swig from the bottle. Goodness me, it’s a wheat bear with that tarty yeasty taste nearly gags you like unripe rhubarb. This is when I read the fine print to see if it is a wheat bear, and there is no mention of wheat, only the world’s finest malt and hops. O.K so I go for another swig of the bottle just to confirm my first impression and although still rough on my palette maybe not as much. By this time the head in the glass has settled into a liquid and I’m seeing a very cloudy pale amber colour with a few floaty bits. My worst home brew has looked clearer than this concoction.  I very carefully pour more beer into the glass so that I can drink from the glass and smell some of the hops in the hope that this may improve the taste which on the next swig seems to be a bit more mellower. This is definitely a strong beer and because of this any tastes not to your liking makes it a beer that is hard to gulp so takes a while to get to know it.

This brew does have an excellent  mouth feel which is what I would expect from a 7.6 percenter and for me seems to have an after taste of whiskey. I remember drinking an early Moa Noir with similar flavours and colours so never tried it again until recently when I had a much more aged Moa and it was way better. I’m thinking that the Thunder Drum may be another such beer and a couple more months of ageing would let the finings settle smooth out the rough edges and let it’s real taste come through.

All in all I’m giving this beer a 4/10 today and maybe 7/10 in two months time.