Not so green as cabbage tasting
I might have mentioned this beer before, so apologies if I’m repeating myself - it’s such a rarity that I come across a beer that I really don’t like, that it is worth remarking on. Adnams East Green Carbon Neutral (4.3%) is one such beer. In fact, the first time I drank it, I really thought I must have got a bad bottle, and that the beer had somehow gone off – so I gave it another trya few weeks later, and again a few weeks after that – and they tasted the same. It’s a straw coloured beer with little or no head to speak of. It is described by the brewers as “a light golden beer with subtle citrus and grassy hop aromas” – for “grassy hop aromas” I would substitute “smells like boiled cabbage” and it doesn’t taste any better.
I have to give Adnams credit for their attempt to be environmentally friendly – they use locally sourced barley, grown and malted in East Anglia, and they use English hops – a variety called Boadicea that I haven’t come across before – maybe they are what give the distinctive “boiled greens” smell and taste. The beer won a Carbon Trust Innovation Award in 2007 – I can only assume that the judges weren’t beer drinkers!
I really like other Adnams beers, so I was very surprised at this one. It’s a good idea, but not executed particularly well I’m afraid – and that might do more harm than good to the environmental cause.