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A surprisingly deep beer

Banks's Bitter

On Tuesday last week, when I should have been at the Great British Beer Festival, I found myself obliged to take a business trip to the north east of England. The Chequers at Dalton-on-Tees,  a proper village pub where I stayed, was some compensation.

The extrovert landlord keeps a small, relatively conservative selection of real ales in the absolute peak of condition. Among them was Banks’s Bitter.

It’s one of those beers you see all over the place and which we’ve always overlooked in favour of stronger, sexier or harder-to-find alternatives. On this occasion, the ticker in me led me to choose it purely because it was the only thing on the pumps I’d never tried before.

And, what do you know? It turns out it’s an excellent, characterful everyday pint. It’s got just the right balance of sulphurous aroma, acidity and malty sweetness to occupy the tastebuds and, at a moderate 3.8%, several pints didn’t leave me crying into my fried breakfast on Wednesday morning.

Bailey