Ilkley, Mary Jane

I think perhaps I ought to have drunk this Mary Jane from Ilkley a little colder. It wasn't refrigerated and it warmed up reasonably quickly, so maybe I was getting a little distortion in the flavours. Anyway, I tried drinking this while referring to Mark Dredge's Beer Flavour Wheel in an attempt to better understand where exactly the flavours might be coming from.

The drink poured very pale indeed, like a washed out gold and the nose was pretty faint. The taste wasn't immediately fruity (compared to a similar drink like, say, Oakham's Citra), but the fruits very definitely in there, just in a (it seemed to me) diluted form - weak orange squash maybe? (I don't mean this to sound like it was bland - it certainly wasn't that. It was quite different to anything else I know and I'm sure this 'lightness of touch' was deliberate!) The closest thing on the Beer Wheel might have been 'blossom' (American hops section). Mild bitterness afterwards that didn't last too long.

Out of all the low alcohol content drinks I've tried to sample recently (eg. Dead Pony Club, Kernel's Table Beer and Moor's Revival) I'm afraid this one has left me the most underwhelmed. I think this would be amazing if very chilled, on a super hot day by the river. As it was, it was dark and blowing a gale outside. I get the feeling that my timing on trying this beer was a bit off. I'll try more of Ilkley's brews though for sure, maybe something stronger next time I think.