Greene King Prior Life
It's time for another IPA, this time from Greene King. I bought this one because I wanted to find out if it is very different to Greene King IPA, or if it is just the same stuff in another can.
Details
- IPA, 3.4% ABV
- 330ml can
From the website:
The eternally light Prior Life is an easy drinking All Day IPA with mellow tropical notes and a citrus aroma. This beer is a tribute to the original Bury St Edmunds master brewers, the Benedictine monks, whose ghosts are said to still walk the Abbey today. Prior Life is as divinely fruity as the low strength beer the monks would drink litres of daily, as it was safer than water at the time.
Fruity and refreshing unfiltered all day IPA. Soft tropical notes of lychee and mango. Grapefruit citrus aroma with floral back note.
Expectations
I've had plain old Greene King IPA before, but not this one. I quite like that, so I expect to enjoy this one too. Greene King IPA doesn't normally give me any fruitiness, so the description makes me think this is quite different.
Experience
When I opened the can and took a sniff my first thought was "mango", so the blurb got that right. I don't know what lychee smells like, so I can't comment on whether it smells like that or not. There is something a bit citrus-like in there as well, though Google tells me lychee is not a citrus fruit.
The beer is quite a dark yellow, but not quite gold or amber. There are a lot of bubbles, and a foamy head about 10mm thick. It looks slightly cloudy, presumably because it is unfiltered.
The taste is refreshing. I would say fruity, but it's not too overpowering, nor too bitter. Some of the fruity beers I have tried have been too fruity for my liking, but this is at about my level.
The aftertaste does remind me of grapefruit, though I don't taste that while the beer is washing over my tongue.
This beer left me with the strange feeling that I shouldn't have liked it as much as I did. I really enjoyed it, and on a hot day like today it was the right beer at the right time.
Verdict
4/5 : A tasty, refreshing beer. Fruity, but not too fruity.
