When Oakham Citra is on form, I think it’s one of the best cask beers around. Ditto JHB. So, in much the same way as when we tasted Dark Star Sunburst, the bar of expectation is raised a little higher this week.
Oakham Inferno is a golden ale of 4% alcohol; it’s brewed with pale malt and five different US hop varieties. In the glass it's a vibrant gold with a loose white head. The aroma is lead by American hops, I’m getting cascadey grapefruit and citrus and a background of pine and slight resin. There’s a leafy, almost dank quality to the aroma that suggests extensive dry hopping has taken place.
The initial flavour doesn’t offer much sweetness; in crash those hops, bringing grapefruit pith and peel, some of that piney quality and perhaps some lemon. There’s a lovely grainy quality towards the backend and then a big hit of bitterness. That bitterness is great at first, but quickly builds and threatens to become too much. A slight suggestion of something metallic and then it’s gone.
And as you get further down the glass that bitterness does get a bit much. There’s almost a salty quality to it - like we saw with the Blond Witch.
Nice though, I liked it. It’s not Citra or JHB, but it’s pretty decent.
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