Wells Banana Bread Beer

As I've gotten older, my drinking tastes have matured. Gone are the days when I would drink for the sake of drinking - now that I'm a mum, with very little oppurtunity for drunken benders, I've switched to 'real' beers, and started to just buy a couple of different bottles every so often, and sit and savour them.

Now, my local supermarket helps me out a little here, with a regular 3 bottles for four quid offer. So, with my weekly shop, I'll tend to pick up three different bottles. Then I wait .

Today,I waited until school was over, and my daughter was in bed asleep . I made myself a nice snack, put something interesting on the telly, and made sure the heatings on at just the right temperature . I laid out my table with the things I need for my evenings enjoyment - a book, a bar of chocolate, and my three beers.

So, tonights tipple was Well's Banana Bread Beer, a relatively potent brew a 5.2 % ABV . I'd picked this up because I love Banana, and a swift glance at the label showed that as well as the obvious Malt, Barley, and Hops, this beer contained real banana. As well as, oddly, banana flavouring . Was I in for a double dose of banana joy ?

Well, I wanted to get stuck in and have a taste, so rubbing my hands together and gleefully grabbed the bottle - only to hit a pitfall . I'd forgotten to get the bottle opener out on the table ready . After a brief hunt around the house, it was located in the bathroom, and I returned downstairs to sample my beverage .

Taking a hearty sniff in the manner of the best wine gurus, I detected a whiff of something rich and sweet . I woudn't say the fragrance of banana hit me immediately in the face , more that it snuck up behind me in the manner of a furtive mugger, and somehow, before I could run, it was there .

It wasn't an overpowering scent, and slowly other scents crept in, a kind of caramel smell, which matched the amber toffee colour of the beer well . Pouring it into my glass, it didn't froth much. That didn't really concern me too much though, I want to drink refreshing wet beer, not annoying fluff.

On the initial sip, it just tasted beery and hoppy at first, but slowly, a mild banana taste danced along my tastebuds - but it didn't seem like real banana, more like the aftertaste left in your mouth after drinking a banana milkshake . It didn't have much of an aftertaste, and the little it did have didn't taste specifically of banana, I just knew I'd had a drink for a while .

The beer slid quickly and easily down my throat, no fizziness or anything, just a nice wet drink. It didn't seem to last me very long though - probably because I did like it an awful lot - after all, it comes in a pint bottle. I think it's definately an occasional treat though, rather than a session beer, and think this beer would benefit from being drunk on its own rather than with food, as the flavour is mild and could easily be obscured by flavours in food.

I would definatelty drink it again - probably not often, and thats not down to any fault with the beer, more my tendancy to vary my selection each week . I'd definately recommend giving it a bash !