My three favourite bottle brewers right now would have to be Bath Ales, Hook Norton and St Austell.
St Austell make some cracking bottles. And their HSD is no exception. It is ‘… a traditionally brewed Strong Cornish Ale’ that comes in at 5%.
HSD stands for Hicks Special Draught – and is named after the Brewery’s founder.
Bottle notes tell us it is ‘… full bodied, strong and distinctly Cornish’.
HSD is made using First Gold, Fuggle and Golding hops and yeast from their own brewery, oh – and Cornish Spring water.
The ale is a nice dark ruby colour, and has a fruity and caramel smell. And the taste? – well it is both bitter and sweet at the same time. The bitterness is a nice compliment to the raisin fruitiness and it definitely comes across as a 5% ale.
This is a lovely bottle. Very drinkable – very quickly drunk. It is so full of flavours and when you’ve drunk one you just want another. Sadly I only bought 1. But I can get more.
On the Ouse scale this is another 4+ out of 5. I really love this bottle. It’s definitely up there with the Bateman’s Combined Harvest – and to be honest I’d be happy with either given the choice.
