Kingstone Gold, from the Kingstone Brewery, is reviewed by Craig Heap.
Kingstone Gold
Kingstone Brewery
ABV 4.0%
And now to the third and final (for now, at least) beer from the Kingstone Brewery in Wales. If you haven’t already, I suggest you read the Tewdric’s Tipple and Abbey Ale reviews from the same brewery for the background, otherwise let’s cut to it. It cost me an eye seizing this beer pack from The Gentleman Drinker and I need to get me an eye patch.
It pours a golden beer in the glass; it’s not crystal quality, owing to the unfiltered bottle-conditioning, but not like a peat bog after a shitstorm either. The white head lies on top like a fresh, rumpled duvet. Seriously, go rumple a duvet sometime.
Kingstone Gold has a familiar fresh malt scent (I’ll come back to that in a moment), with a subtle hint of allspice and cinnamon. In the taste it has that trademark grapefruit citrus quality which Kingstone displayed in the two previous beers, but this time it is mellowed by a larger, sweeter malt presence.
The creamy, biscuit malt profile is well balanced by the tart citrus notes, giving a suggestion of key lime pie or lemon meringue. This makes it the most sessionable out of Tewdric’s, Abbey and Gold. It also took me awhile to realise something quite obvious, and quite close to my heart.
The problem with many Welsh beers is that most of them adopt an idiosyncratic, sweet biscuit malt core. At first it’s great but after awhile it takes on a generic blandness, and then it becomes annoying. Kingstone’s signature citrus twist, however, gives the right kick to an overdone style. Chill this and you’ll have a brilliant, light bodied, crisp summer thirst-quencher.
