I'm going to continue the Pale and Blonde Ales theme for a while on this blog, it just seems too warm to be focusing on milds and bitters at this stime of year. Whereas with my first review i looked at a distinctly eclectic beer, whereas here i'm looking at what would at least seem to be, a more traditional English summer ale.
Badger's Golden Champion is an interesting ale. It styles itself as a: "delicately strong and refreshingly light" ale, with the great tagline: "summer in a bottle". This bodes well, as i am currently sitting in a very humid north London and i need something to slake my thirst.
And from the off it is a great summer drink. It is fresh and light, yet it has a sweet and malty taste which doesn't dominate. A good thing too as the malt gives way to a fruity and crisp after taste. Badger added an extra ingredient in the form of elderflower. I love this as it goes back all the way to a time where there were no hops to flavour ale, all that was used was the ingredients around them such as honey, heather and, like here, elderflower. This gives it an extra something, a certain something or other, that brings out all the fruit flavours. Bitterness follows through to give a certain amount of balance.
But this ale is not perfect in its own right. I can be a tad too sweet, especially due to the elderflower which, if anybody has tried elderflower cordial before, is very sweet. There is also a hint of a little too much carbonation. This could be from the bottle, but it is a little annoying.
Overall i would give this an 8/10. It is a great ale for a time like this, a hot and humid summers evening, but it i just a little over-balanced in terms of sweetness for it to quench my thirst properly.
Cheers
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