Tasting

What does a beer from Kent taste like? Take a glass of Spitfire from Shepherd Neame: amber-colored, with an aroma of orange marmalade and toast, finishing slightly dry. According to the brewery, this beer was first brewed in 1990 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. It's a textbook example of Kentish Ale.

The second example is Bishops Finger, a darker, fuller-bodied beer with toffee and dried fruit. According to the brewery, it has been brewed since 1958, making it one of the older names among British bottled beers.

A third benchmark worth trying is the cask beers from small Kent breweries that put East Kent Goldings front and center. To taste Goldings on its own, look for bitters hopped with this variety: expect a delicate, floral character rather than a burst of tropical fruit.

In England, cask ale is served straight from the cellar at around 11 to 13°C (52 to 55°F). That's cool but not ice-cold, since extreme cold mutes the subtle aromas. The publican draws the beer with a hand pump, the beer engine, into a pint glass. A pint holds 568 milliliters (20 fl oz), a half-pint half that.

When tasting, the aroma comes first: biscuit, marmalade, flowers. Then the body, followed by the bitterness in the finish. The head on English cask ale is thinner than on German draft beer, and that's intentional. The carbonation is gentle, giving the beer a rounder feel and making it easy to sip slowly.