Sambrook's Wandle

London Beer Tastings 2011, London Drinker Beer Festival March 2010

A shorter version of this review was first published in BEER February 2010 as part of a piece about beers to taste with chocolate. For more beers tasted with chocolate, see Rulles JeanChris Numéro 1.

ABV: 4.2%
Origin: London SW11, England
Website: www.sambrooksbrewery.co.uk

Sambrook's Wandle

JeanChris No 1(reviewed in the previous post) is rare in the UK, but as it has something of the character of a British bitter, you could find alternatives closer to home. For example Sambrook’s Wandle), an impressive, tasty bitter available both bottle conditioned, as reviewed here, and in cask (at the lower gravity of 3.8%) from new southwest London micro Sambrook’s, founded by Duncan Sambrook in Battersea in 2008. Duncan was inspired partly by the decline in brewing in London marked by the departure of Young’s to Bedford, alluded to in the beer’s name, Wandle – the river that runs into the Thames past the Young’s brewery site.

The beer is a classic amber colour with a fine yellowy head and a gently malty spicy aroma which is very slightly wheaty and phenolic. A fresh well-balanced malty palate has a slight banana note and a seedy hop tangy. The soft finish has strawberry fruit and a gentle hoppy was developing peppery tones from Fuggles, Goldings and Boadicea. The flavour complements the fruitiness of good chocolate, which in turn brings out spicy orange notes in the beer.

Afterword November 2011. Although bottled beers are an important part of Sambrook’s business plan, the majority of its beer goes out in cask, and in this form Wandle does brilliantly in the role of draught session beer.

A sample tasted at the Willoughby Arms in Kingston late in 2010 was warm amber, with a fine white head and a dry and lightly citric aroma. The palate was notably luscious given the relatively low gravity, with waxy fruit and nuts and hints of artichoke. A lightly dry, cewy, soothing finish was only moderately long but very pleasant and moreish. I suspect the strawberry notes found in the bottled version were an artifact of the bottling yeast.

For more beers tasted with chocolate see Elmtree Nightlight Mild.

Read more about this beer at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/sambrooks-wandle/98632/