Brewery: Three Tuns
Location: Bishop's Castle, Shropshire, England
ABV: 5.0%
Version: Bottled
Source: Tanner's, Bridgnorth

Shropshire's Three Tuns Brewery bills itself as the oldest licensed brewery in England (first licensed in 1642, more info on their website) and with Cleric's Cure - one of their stable of regular beers - they've dipped into the history books again with a beer that's "designed to re-create the iconic style of India Pale Ales of the 19th Century." This places it alongside the likes of Meantime India Pale Ale, BrewDog's forthcoming Atlantic IPA and Thornbridge's Jaipur (and just-announced, even more traditional Seaforth IPA, which is another one for the 'must-try' list).

But back to the Cleric's Cure. This one poured a lovely pale golden colour and offered a faint whiff of honey on the nose. The honey carried through into the flavour as well, with a big hit of syrupy-sweetness and a slightly sticky mouth-feel as well. There's a definite citrus tang in there, that starts somewhere around lemon but ends up closer to grapefruit, but there's little else in the way of bitterness involved; it seems to be sugars pretty much all the way. Which wasn't what I was expecting from an IPA, I have to say: based on the two aforementioned traditional-style IPAs that I've tried recently (still haven't encountered the Jaipur, dammit) then I'd definitely have expected a lot more hops, perhaps a bit more alcohol and definitely less sugar.

All in all, it's drinkable enough, but probably a bit too sugary-sweet to become a regular tipple (even if I lived anywhere near an outlet that sold the stuff). Not terrible by any means, but not a new personal favourite, either.

Related posts:

1. Tasting Notes: Meantime India Pale Ale
2. Tasting Notes: Thornbridge Halcyon 2008
3. Tasting Notes from the Altrincham Bottle and Cask Festival 2009
4. Tasting Notes: BrewDog Atlantic IPA
5. Tasting Notes: St Peter’s Honey Porter