Adnam's Broadside

[Bytowner]

God I love autumn.

Big, bad, bold, beautiful this Adnam's brew is. From the packaging to the taste, everything is right on. As advertised, all fruit cake and preserves with slightly resiny hops. Pick some up!

[JesseM]

Yeah I was really impressed by this stuff as well. It had to warm up a lot before it became awesome, but when it did, oh man was it ever tasty.

I was expecting the Belhaven Wee Heavy to be even better, but I was actually somewhat disappointed with it. A little too bland even after warming. But the Adnams is definitely one to consume in high quantity, especially considering the price! $3.10 for 500mL, usually I'd expect something like it to be more.

The weird thing, is that I really don't like fruitcake. But I guess in beer-form it's a totally different story.

[The_Jester]

I was actually pleasantly surprised by the bitterness in this one - start to finish. As long as you don't let it get too warm. It's a shame that the flavour doesn't live up to the complexity of the aroma. Still, a nice adult beverage.

[JesseM]

Has anyone else noticed how well this one seemed to sell? Or am I just going crazy? The stuff was gone in a matter of days at all the major LCBO's I've been to in my area over the last couple of weeks. I only managed to score myself one more bottle. I'd be happy to hear that something like this has been a success elsewhere.

[Bytowner]

Yeah, you're right Jesse. Remember, the beer industry is 99% marketing, and, as I said in my post, the packaging of this product is lovely, modern yet elegant. I'm not surprised it gets people interested.

[SteelbackGuy]

This beer isn't that good at all. Reminds me of fruit cake and molasses. Problem is, I hate fruit cake with a passion......

I almost poured this beer down the drain. Blech!

[Belgian]

Naw it's a pretty good drinkable beer, fairly ordinary, and not excessively spicy at all. I'm amazed people say it's 'fruit cake in a glass' because that's not it for me.

[tupalev]

I think you're going to be in the minority on this one Len, but of course to each their own.

I agree with the poster above - perfect Autumn beer. It was a nice treat to have at the TFOB this year as well.

[SteelbackGuy]

I think you're going to be in the minority on this one Len,

Ohh probably


I just can't get around the molasses and fruit cake flavours in any beer.....this one just seemed to be more pungent with those flavours than most.

[sprague11]

Managed to score a measly 4 bottles. Not something I'd drink bottle after bottle of but what's sitting in the cellar is going to be great on those cold winter nights infront of the fireplace.

[old faithful]

American hops, surely. Tastes like a West Coast pale ale or IPA. Good but surprisingly American in style, IMO.

Gary

[viggo]

American hops, surely. Tastes like a West Coast pale ale or IPA. Good but surprisingly American in style, IMO.

Gary

Have you ever had an American beer?

[old faithful]

In recent years, U.K. brewers have experimented with American hops and there was a small fashion for American-styled pale ales. (Actually, use of American varieties is not new, it has been intermittent for a long time by some U.K. brewers at any rate).

I only thought to do this after I mentioned my taste reaction, but a quick check of Internet sources suggests the hops used are Goldings, Fuggles and Challenger, and English-only.

But to me, it nonetheless tastes similar to a number of American pale ales and IPAs I have had and yes, I've tasted a few, for nigh on 30 years now. (Also, specs for beers do change over time and I still do not rule out that some American hops might have been used for this beer or this batch).

If the beer does not contain American hops in part at least, I think it may have been influenced in its palate by APAs, and there is nothing wrong with that of course, since the latter in turn are recalling often a traditional English penchant for strongly hopped bitters.

Gary

[old faithful]

I just checked the brewer's website and while nothing is said about American hops and Broadside, I note that the brewer's Explorer beer uses some U.S. hops, here is a part description of Explorer from the site:

"Adnams Explorer ABV 4.3%

A blonde beer suffused with the aromas of a grapefruit grove. The massive citrus attack will burst on your palate allowing all the flavours of the imported New World hops to deliver their fruity bitterness. We’ve done our research here and we expect Explorer to be particularly popular with both younger and women drinkers as the light refreshing drink of choice".

So use of American hops is not unknown to the brewery and I wonder if some of them have gotten into the current version of Broadside, too. Whether yes or no, it reminds me of some American APAs, some sampled in Portland not long ago, and is a notable beer at any rate for its rich, craft-brewed character.

Gary

[Fergus]

Hi there, I'm the brewer at Adnams. I've been curious to see how Broadside has been going down in Canada so I came across this website. Anyway I just wanted to let you know that Broadside uses just one English hop called First Gold. We do a cask beer called Broadside at 4.7% abv, but this is a totally different beer, and uses Goldings and Fuggles.

The beer in cask is a different recipe to the bottle version. The bottle recipe was the original, as it says on the bottle, which we started brewing in 1972. The story that has been passed down to me goes that in the early eighties the bottle market in the UK was on the wane, we thought that bottled broadside would die out and at the time cask beer was seeing a resurgence and we wanted to produce a new cask beer. Everyone liked the name broadside and wanted to keep it going in some form but at 6.3% abv it wasn't suitable as a cask beer. So we formulated a new recipe and called it Broadside. Obviously the bottle beer market recovered and has grown quite strongly and at the same time the cask market grew and we have ended up with two successful beers with the same name but with different recipes. They do have similar tastes, both malty, fruity cake, but with the exception that the bottled Broadside just has a lot more of those flavours.

Anyway, I won't take up any more of your space. Hope you keep enjoying the beer.