White Shield

It’s over a decade since I last had a bottle of Worthington’s White Shield, I bought one as I’d heard the yeast was good for use in homebrew. I can remember really not liking it, however I can’t remember exactly why I didn’t like it. It disappeared from the shelves soon after, so not liking it was a bit of a moot point really.

I tried to get hold of a couple of bottles earlier this year as I was thinking of doing a homebrew clone and I wanted to know what it tasted like. I couldn’t find any locally and baulked at buying a couple online due to postage cost, so I put that idea to bed and did a brew based on Old Peculier instead.

If I’d gone to the Burton twissup, I’d have got a tour round the White Shield brewery and I’d have got to met Steve Wellington, the brewer, c’est la vie. Anyway, to cut a rambling story short, it turns out that one of my local Waitrose stores are now stocking bottles of White Shield, so I popped along the other week and picked up a couple.

The first bottle poured a dark amber with a large fluffy off white head. There was a serious amount of bubbles feeding the head and it looked like a jacuzzi going on in the glass. The nose was all sulphurous, the infamous Burton Snatch. Although there was possibly a hint of fruity malt hiding in there too.

For the amount of bubbles, the body was surprisingly smooth, I was expecting it to be rougher. It was quite full bodied, with a malty nutty taste. It wasn’t as bitter as I was expecting, although I’m not sure what I was expecting to be honest. There’s was enough bitterness to counteract the maltiness though. The after taste was all subtle lingering marmalade and really quite pleasant.

• Worthington’s
• White Shield, 5.6%, 500ml

After having two bottles, one after the other, I have to say that I quite like it. Having said that, if given the choice between this and say, Fuller’s Bengal Lancer, I think I’d take the Bengal Lancer…