Adnams The Bitter (Bottle/Can)
Available in 500ml pasteurised bottles, and in cans. Formerly known as Adnams Suffolk Strong Ale, now known as Southwold Bitter. Replaced in the Adnams bottled beer range by Southwold Bitter at 4.1% (different recipe). SSB is a refreshing beer of real flavour, distinctively hoppy and deliciously dry - perfect served cool. SSB commemorates the building of the famous Southwold Lighthouse, which has been guiding ships to safety since 1890.
3.2
477 reviews
Southwold, England
Community reviews
From old backlog. 500ml bottle. Dark amber colour with tiny head. Aroma is caramel, hops. Flavour is malt, caramel, hoppy finish.
Clear copper with white head and shallow lacing. Caramel aroma, main kick malty with some fruits and a bittersweet finish.
Originally rated October 2004. Sampled from their nice original 500ml brown bottle. Poured a beautiful amber-brown with orange highlights. The descant white head left an amazing amount of lacing. The nose was fruity with caramel malts, and hints of floral scents. Taste is hoppy, but not very bitter ??!?! Smooth mouthfeel with a dry finish. Some malt is in the taste too. I will try and seek more Adnams product, as I like this one.
Gift from SJ. A simple beer with some hop and caramel malt.
The finish had a mild honey, butterscotch and toast in it. It was nice.
Bottle from systembolaget. Hazy amber colour with a fine white head. Very fruity and a lot of hops in the aroma. Similar rich flavour with a fresh carbonation makes this a wonderful beer.
50cl bottle. Pours amber with a huge light brown head. Smells fruity and bitter. Tastes bitter, honey and malty with a similar finish.
Can 50 cl. A dark amber colour with a small, white head. An aroma of malt, fruit, toffee and hops. The taste is medium sweet and light bitter. A medium body, oily texture, soft carbonation and a medium long light bitter finish.
Cask at The Sheeps Heid. Pours a reddish golden colour with a thin white head. Aroma is a little sour with barley, caramel and yeast. Similar flavours with some grassy hops and an earthy character. Quite yeasty with a sour lemon finish. Mildly dry and a little thin. Reminded me a bit of Greene King IPA.
En Suffolk-bitter som liksom oftast i södra England har en lite skarpare humleprofil. Fuggleshumlen ger den där blommiga så typiska karaktären. Torr lätt kropp (inte samma sak som tunn eller vattnig) med tydlig sädkaraktär och lite karamell. Stiltypisk bra utan att ha något som gör den verkligt minnesvärd. En bra bitter helt enkelt.
A tick from Crosspoint Tesco? That turns out to be a cheeky, sessionable little beast replete with sherbety, berry-accented jellied orange and coriander-like notes? You’re making this up. Pale ruby with an initially rocky cream head. Sherbety, slightly doggy, cinder toffee aroma. Can sense hops and malt. Good chewy wine gum notes. Clean, undamaged, some earthiness. Adnams continue to surprise. Digestive biscuit and aerosol cream afters. Works for me.
Earlier Rating: 6/23/2007 Total Score: 3.1
500ml bottle. Clear chestnut pour with a thick head of cream suds. Nutty malt in the nose with some inviting hints of demerara, wood and cherryish fruit. A sniff of bolied-down hop leafiness. Aluminium and oak. Heavily malt-accented nutty bitter with a sweetly biscuity vanilla aftertaste. And a spoonful of vomit.
On draught at the Goose in Bracknell. Amber bitter with a short lived but well formed head. Light fruity head. Light and fruity bitter, pleasant but not excellent. A hint of apricot. A little plain but actually its not very bitter. Better than the average English bitter.
Clear dark amber with an off-white head. Aroma is malty and light fruity. Flavor is medium sweet and light bitter. Dry and light bitter finish. 170711
A classic English bitter. The colour is mahogany and has a nice caramel and woodsy/earthy hop aroma too. The palate is quite full and really coats the mouth nicely. there is plenty of malt flavour that is well balanced the the bitterness. Carbonation is spot on for this beer, just enough to add some creaminess to the mouthfeel.
Bottle from Mane Liquor. To sum up this beer; it’s clean and crisp, has a mild palate, and finishes bitter to add to the drinkability. A very good bitter
bottle, nice hoppy aroma, amber, clear, frothy, rocky head, very bitter, light sweetness, nice taste, medium body, slick feel, average carbonation, bitter, long finish, nice beer
In England, "bitter" isn’t just an adjective, but a beer style (and for some people there - a way of life). Order a bitter in the UK and you’ll get something like Adnams’ "The Bitter," a clean-tasting ale with a mild palate and slightly bitter finish. Highly sessionable to be sure, but the mild palate leaves much to be desired.
I poured a 500ml bottle into a nonic pint glass.
Appearance: Very dark copper/brown color with a crystal-clear body and plenty of carbonation evident. Forms a one-finger, off-white, soapy head. Doesn’t dissolve completely, but leaves only minute lacing on the glass.
Smell: This smells much more like a glass of breakfast juice with notes of red apple and white grape. There’s also a slight grainy aroma as well, but it is muted as is the entire nose here.
Taste: The first half of the palate is traditional British pub ale with a slightly sweet and tart flavor of red apple and white grape. The finish and aftertaste are much closer to a lager, though, with mild grainy flavors which impart a slight tang or sourness to the palate. There’s a slightly dry, biscuity malt taste and texture as well. The aftertaste consists of a quick kick of apple sweetness which gives way to a mild cracker-like dryness and a lager-like aftertaste.
This palate is strange since there are elements to like and dislike equally, throwing the beer out of balance in my opinion. There’s nothing overtly foul to the palate, but the good qualities just aren’t strong enough, either.
Drinkability: This beer literally tastes and feels cold and wet in the mouth. It’s initially crisp like a lager, but smoothens out to a more ale-like experience. It is noticeably thin, and I would classify this on the lighter side of medium bodied. The 4.5% ABV seems almost non-existent and would enable this beer to work well as a session beer, if only there were more taste to match.
Overall, an average beer all around and despite the name, not even the best traditional English bitter this brewery has to offer.
NOTE: Watch the video version of this review at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-btR9MgxOj8
Can. Clear chestnut with a fine bubbly light beige head. Malty aroma with caramel, butterscotch, dried fruit and butter. Some aquarium lingers in the background.
Taste is soft malty with caramel and some butterscotch, dried fruit, dark bread and some old flowery hops. Slight sweetness that goes into a smooth bitterness that lingers with butterscotch. Slight note of dirty water. Weak body without getting too watery. Carbonation is smooth and slight wild.
It’s ok but I’ve never been a fan.
500 ml bottle.
Pours a slightly unclear copper colour with a frothy, white, foamy head. Aroma of English hops and grass. Flavour of good English hops, bready malts, grass and caramel. Medium bodied with a thick mouthfeel and a pleasant bitter finish. Quite good.
Bottle from supermarket in London. Orange color with a airy white head. Aroma is spicy, pine, forest fruit and hints of pepper. Taste, grapefruit, cinnamon with nice bitter finish.
Dark amber color, the head is large-pored, shallow and short lived. The Bitter Ale smells dominant malty spicy and bitter, with mild hop aromas. Starts very bitter, as it should be. A good hoppy aroma also comes through, coupled with a good spiciness. The aftertaste shows malty and spicy, very long reverb! The further course is malty and bitter, the hops are somewhat pushed into the background. Unfortunately, the beer gets a bit watery by time. Bitter dry finish!
500ml bottle. Medium sized though mostly disappearing, frothy off-white head leaving a soapy lace; deep & clear chestnut brown body. Subtle fruit aromas, caramel/pasteurised malts and yeast too. Nutty & oddly ’hollow’ pasteurised sweetness on the tongue. More of the yeasty character follows. Medium carbonation with a fair, lingering toasty bitterness & a light to medium body.
From a 500ml bottle on 11/12/2010. Has a mild aroma of malt, bread, grass, fruit and a hint of musk lolly. Tastes malty and biscuity, with a little sweet toffee and caramel in the mix. The bitterness is quite pronounced, and has an almost sour, peppery quality to it. This is an interesting bitter, and has a lot of flavour for the modest alcohol content, but it doesn’t quite hit the mark for me.
500ml bottle. Pours a clear red-amber, with a medium head. Smells like a classic bitter, with a whiff of citrus and some toffee malt notes. Moderate citrus and pine hops start it off, followed by lemon and honey, with a burnt caramel finish. A nice, complex, yet eminently drinkable bitter.
Good looking beer. Lots of caramel & floral aromas. Toffee caramel malts outweigh the fruity floral hops though. Pretty good English Bitter.
Fresh fragrance with mild hops aroma and soft and sweet tons of malt. Flavor is malty with aromatic hops. Short vague hop bitter aftertaste. Fairly thin and bland!
Bottle 500ml. Brown/copper color, small head. Hoppy nose, some fruits, a bit spicy. Soft, malty mouthfeel. Overall quite hoppy and a long, bitter aftertaste. Not bad for a bitter, but a little disappointing for me.
Can. Amber with a white head. Aroma of bready malt with hints of orange. Taste has malts, fruit, some citrus, hints of spices, and a moderate bitterness.
Well shoot me with a rusty shotgun... this is actually excellent. Smells like beer (rather than fizz which is usually what bottled beer smell of). Great toasty flavour. Good body and good finish. Just a good beer, a proper brown bitter.
This beer looks excellent! It has dark amber color with medium-size firm white head. Fruity hoppy nose. Aroma has hops is fruity. The flavor is hops, roasted malt. Finishes with refreshing hoppy bitterness.
500ml bottle. Pours amber with a coat of a beige head. Low bead. Smells of toffee, apples, pears, spices, flowers. Quite malty and sweet with some fruit but mostly buttery toffee. Good balancing bitterness. Has that somewhat lifeless feel common to bottled bitters. Is also a bit heavy for my tastes in this style. Still, a fair drop.