St Austell Brewery Proper Job Beer Review

I believe this is my second review of a St Austell Brewery beer. The first was the slightly more famous Tribute, but we've moved on from there now to Proper Job, a powerfully hopped bottle conditioned IPA I picked up from LIDL. Just to briefly mention St Austell is a proper old Cornish brewery which has been making proper traditional ales for about 170 years and owns a bunch of pubs around the country. What I'm basically saying is these guys know what their doing, and to have survived this long in such a competitive market they must be doing something right. Today we're going to find out if Proper Job does the job.

The beer comes in a nice enough 500ml bottle, there's nothing particularly fancy about it, but in it's own minimalist way it's fairly eye catching. Proper Job has a reasonably impressive 5.5% alcohol content, which feels a little above average for an IPA. The beer pours a very clear gold, so much so you could almost mistake it for a lager, you'll also get a nice big foamy white head, so again a little bit like a lager. I really hope it tastes more like an IPA than a lager. It's not a stand out beer for its looks that's for sure, but looks can be deceiving so I'm not going to let that put me off too much. 

The aroma is quite faint and floral. There's certainly citrus in there, and probably pineapple too. The other scent that comes through heavily is the hops, so maybe it is as powerfully hopped as it says on the bottle. To be honest at this point there's not a huge amount to make Proper Job stand out above other IPA's. I do have to say that I'm relatively new to the IPA game having grown up asking one simple question to every member of bar staff... 'What's the darkest ale you've got on?' I am starting to develop a taste for them though so hopefully this will be another step into full IPA appreciation for me.

The texture matches the look, it's very light to drink, while the taste is very much dominated by fruity hops. The citrus really comes through powerfully too, with quite a bitter aftertaste. Proper Job is certainly a beer with a bit of a twang to it, possibly a bit too much in all honesty. I know I say this with a lot of beers from older breweries but it's a little uninspiring. If you like IPA's in general you're going to quite enjoy Proper Job, if like me you drink more than is probably good for you and want something to inspire you you'll shrug your shoulders, think that wasn't unpleasant, and quickly forget about it. Proper Job from St Austell Brewery does a good job, but not a great job, so I'll give it a fairly average 5.5 out of 10.