Serlo de Burgh

Give a child a toy, and he'll undoubtedly play with it.

Give a man an experimental brew kit... and you can bet he'll brew you a beer.

Not just any beer either:

Serlo de Burgh is a six hop, six percent IPA brewed by Ol Fozard at Roosters, and is a beer I really like the story behind; "Serlo de Burgh was a powerful Northern Baron who commissioned the building of Knaresborough Castle. Originally the Baron of Tonsburgh, Normandy, he accompanied William The Conqueror to England and was granted the Manor of Knaresborough as a reward for his part in the Norman invasion and is subsequently regarded as the first Lord of Knaresborough." - Good stuff, but how does the beer match up? Many people have been uneasy about the hand over at Roosters, claiming, that the beer wouldn't be as good, and that Sean's would always be better. Now Roosters made no official date of when the actual final hand over happened so people wouldn't be able to tell, and by all accounts it seems to have worked fine, I've had quite a lot of Roosters beer over the past few months and it's all been great.
   This beer has been produced with hops from America, Australia and New Zealand, but as we know it takes more than shoving loads of tasty hops into a kettle to make a good beer, so what's it like?

Well, it has a very inviting aroma; I'm getting peaches and apricots, fresh straw with a lemony twist, sweet sugars, sherbet and orange with lime... it smells damn fresh too!

The beer starts like a fresh fruit salad. It has quite a bit of carbonation to it and when it rolls over your tongue, you get a great big smack of fizzy orange bitterness, which is intensely refreshing.. and rather awakening. It has a real zing about it which really hits all the sweet spots. Intensely fruity as I said, the flavour matches the aroma very well, and I'm also getting a good sense of biscuity malt in the background. Soft, floral and dangerously easy drinking for a 75cl bottle of 6% beer. It's balanced, and while it might have a sense of subtlety and restraint about it, to the keen taster, it's a real master-class in beer production.

I don't think the brewery could have been put in better hands.

Fantastic beer, great story and overall feel about this beer, I can't wait to see what the guys come out with next.