Gold Cup from Ascot Brewing Company Beer Review

Welcome to the Drink in the Sights Gold Cup from Ascot Brewing Company Beer Review. I think this may be my last review from my brief Brew Republic subscription and I'm not too unhappy to be at the end in all honesty. Ascot Brewing Company were founded in 2007 so they're still relative newbies who hail from Camberley which I gather is near Guildford. I know nothing of note about them other than this and I'm pretty sure this is the only one of their beers I've ever had. Fortunately this blog is really all about trying new beers of every shade from as many breweries as possible so I'm glad I'm trying something completely new to me.

Gold Cup from Ascot Brewing Company comes in a standard 500ml bottle with a yellow label which I assume is meant to be gold. The beer is described as 'a light session IPA with intense citrus grapefruit aromas from Cascade and Chinook hops. Very refreshing Session IPA with a strong hop character.' It doesn't really sound very interesting does it? The beer offers a very session sounding 4% alcohol content and comes with its own QR code, I'm not really sure why and in all honesty can't be bothered to scan it to find out.

I actually saved this beer for a nice sunny day as to my mind that's the only time to drink a light beer so I guess I better get on and pour it. Gold Cup pours a clear almost orange colour with a seriously good long lasting head so at least it's got that going for it. The aroma is uninspiring. There's clearly lots of hops in there along with citrus and maybe a little blackcurrant which will hopefully make it stand out from the thousands of other hoppy citrus IPA's out there. 

Gold Cup is quite disappointing, and the more I drink the more disappointed I get. While it looks really good the texture isn't as refreshing as an IPA should be and the overly citrus, overly hopped taste actually starts to feel quite sour and tart. It was actually a bit of a battle to convince myself to finish this beer, which really is unusual for me. I'm not a fan of citrus based IPA's at the best of times and sadly this is a below average one. I'm going to give Gold Cup from Ascot Brewing Company a very disappointing 3 out of 10. With so many similar beers out there you'll have plenty to choose from is you want a citrus based IPA hit without resorting to this.