Prince Charles Should Stay Off The Ale
Our future monarch’s Duchy Originals brand has done very well out of the organic food boom - in fact you have to (perhaps grudgingly) admit that the Prince showed a bit of entrepreneurial vision on this one, since his Highgrove Farm oatcakes etc. anticipated mass take-up of organics by a good few years.
Their Cumberland Sausages are probably the best sausages you can buy in a supermarket, but generally the Duchy brand tends to be comfortably OK - tasty enough, not big on flavour, a bit overpriced for what it is, but never actually bad. However, the new ale from Duchy Originals bucks this trend - it’s really not very nice at all, judging by the taste I had at the British Beer Festival on Friday.
The marketing of real ale is a bit of a bugbear of mine - I think it should be doing better than it is given the huge consumer interest in authenticity, food provenance, organics etc. It needs a breakout product though and the Duchy ale is no doubt hoping to leverage its brand and become this. The problem is that it seems to have been brewed for people who don’t like bitter - it’s very crisp, sweet and fruity indeed.
Of course that isn’t necessarily a problem at all - some of my favourite bottled ales, including several delicious Badger ones, are like this. But they lure you with their sweetness then round the taste off with more bitter notes, creating a complex, more-ish and well rounded experience (basically they are nummy). The Duchy brew has no real aftertaste at all - no bitterness, nothing, and so the promise of the initial taste (lovely fruitiness) becomes a wan sickliness by the third mouthful. It won’t scare anyone off who is wary of ale’s richness or hoppiness, but its sweetness is glib and cloying (it’s the beer equivalent of “Don’t Falter” by Mint Royale, arf arf).
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RickyT on August 13th, 2007
Their Winter Ale isn’t up to much, either. It’s not horrible by any means, but compared to e.g. Brakspear’s Triple, or St. Peters’ Winter it’s just sticky, brown and bland.
FT's Pete Baran on August 13th, 2007
I think you have too much faith in Prince Charles being our future monarch anyway. Twelve Foot Lizard Mumsie is never gonna die.
I also think you may be right in noting that Real Ale needs a breakthrough product, but complletely wring in thinking it could be a Duchy Original. For it to have the heritage and ethical sourcing issues as a forefront it would have to be an old(ish) producer, or an exciting new brewery. Neither of which Prince Charles operation really musters. The closest we’ve had is Timothy Taylor’s Landlord, which unfortunately is a bit pale and wan in the bottle.