Beer Review: Ghost Ship

Adnam's gave me Broadside back when I started drinking a beer a week and it was not a good call on my part to drink it. Therefore, when looking for a Hallowe'en beer, I was a little wary of trying this out. But it was cheap-ish and wasn't more Shepherd Neame, which I think I'll like regardless these days. So it was time to try something new.

Tonight, then, I am drinking Ghost Ship, a pale ale that claims to be 'ghostly' and has an eerie picture of a sailing ship on it, so it can't be all bad.

Upon opening there is a smell that smells like beer. That is, there's a definite air of hops and an underlying maltiness to it, there is yeast but it is not overpowering or anything like that. It just is. The colour is a rich nutty one - the kind one finds on desks from Victorian times - and it puts me in mind of walnut. It should be inlaid with coloured woods and lined with velvet or something. Still, there is a carbonation and if you pour it badly you'll end up with massive head that takes a while to clear.

First taste is none too shabby. It's 4.5% ABV and so it does let you know that straight up. My overwhelming impression is that this is a spicy little number, so hoppy, and then there's a feeling that its been bittered. I don't think there's anything citrus like to the beer, but that could be the take away meal having its input. Overall, there's a spice and there's a swirl of yeast to it, as one would expect I suppose, before the underlying malt smoothes things out as much as it can. The fizz is a little much, but it is bottled, and so this would probably taste better if it were on draught or something - but I can't vouch for that as I haven't had many beers on draught!

Aftertaste is far from lingering and I found myself a little didappointed at that. It is a pleasant enough beer and certainly very much inkeeping with the IPAs that I've had over time in this little adventure. It's not one of my favourites but it does the job for a dark Hallowe'en night after reading Voyage of the Dawn Treader to my daughter.

Best drunk at a moderate pace and probably with a select few. It doesn't cut the mustard for a full and frank discussion about the merits of taste and aroma and it probably did better with my meal than it would alone. So drink with food and then move onto something a little more refined if you want to talk about it later.