Name: Armada Ale
Brewery: Harvey's
ABV: 4.5%
Style: Golden Ale
Location: Lewes, East Sussex
Aroma: Bags of hops, oranges, lemons, freshly cut grass and malt.
Colour: Deep yellowish gold with a cloudy haze, a one finger white head.
Taste: A hoppy bitterness is immedietely noticeable, which leads to grassy then floral and fruity notes of lemon, pineapple and lychee. The use of dry hopping is noticeable but not overpowering. The malt helps give backbone to the beer and bridging all the flavours, while the mouthfeel is chewy and smooth, though a tad biscuity and dry on the backend. It is light, and not too heavy, making it rather sessionable for a mid strength beer.
Verdict: A rather quaffable number that scores on flavours, it has a dry bittersweet quality and the hops make up for much of its strength, the use of dry hopping gives it some added flavour and character, though the malt seems rather muted and underplayed which kind of lets things down. This may be purposesfully done in order to amplify the refreshing sessionable elements, after all it was originally devised as a rival to Lager. The flavours here are traditional as you can get for a traditional English style Golden Ale, even down to the hops (Fuggles and Goldings), its a world away from the comtemporary hoppy and citrussy examples that are churned out today. For a beermade nearly 40 years ago, it holds rather well. It is easy to see why it helped kick off the boom for Golden Ales.
Rating: 7/10
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