Derby Brewing Company Quint Essential Beer Review

Welcome to the Drink in the Sights Quint Essential from Derby Brewing Co Beer Review. I'm pretty sure Quint Essential is only my second taste of Derby Brewing Company beers and as the first one, Blood Wolf, was excellent I'm very much looking forward to trying this. I probably don't need to say this but Derby Brewing Company is based in, yes you guessed it, Derby and they've been brewing for close to 30 years now so they've got some experience behind them. Given that Derby is only a couple of hours from me I may have to pay them a visit at some point in the near future. Anyway enough about the brewery, we need to talk about the beer.

Quint Essential comes in a nice 500ml bottle featuring what I assume is the Derby skyline. If it's anywhere else that'd just be a bit weird wouldn't it? The bottle also boasts that this is a SIBA (society of independent brewers) award winning beer so it's nice to know someone clearly likes it. At 5% Quint Essential should be a beer that has an effect on you, but not too much unless you're going to drink a fair few. The brewer describes the beer as 'a moreish and crisp golden ale with citrus fruit flavours and a complex hoppy finish.' It sounds a bit dull to be honest.

The beer pours a pale gold with a very nice white foamy head which sticks around quite nicely. It has all the looks of a decent light golden ale. The aroma is quite sharp and fruity with plenty of citrus and lots of hops, so it seems to be living up to the brewers description. Really Quint Essential seems to be ticking all the same boxes far too many light beers do these days, hoppy, citrus, fruity, light, how often do you hear those words repeated for different beers?

The texture is very much as expected, it's light and reasonably refreshing. The taste meanwhile is less citrus based than I expected but still very fruity, it's actually fairly pleasant to start with. However there is a bit of a bitter aftertaste, and not in a particularly good way. It doesn't ruin the beer, but it doesn't add a great deal either. Quint Essential feels like a bit of a box ticker, especially if you compare it to Blood Wolf from the same brewery which really was a bit different. I'm going to give Quint Essential from Derby Brewing Company 5.5 out of 10. It pretty much is just another quintessential light beer than ticks all the usual light beer boxes.