Cotswold Way is a premium bitter offered by the Wickwar brewery from Gloucestershire. It was another of the beers sampled at the trade session at the recent Stockport Beer Festival.

The ale is pretty much a quintessential English Bitter both in terms of colour and taste. At a strength of 4.2% it is also pretty middle of the road as alcohol level goes.

Wickwar is a new brewery to me although they have been in operation since 1990 so they have a degree of brewing pedigree.

What characterises Cotswold Way for me is the contrast between sweet and sour. We have on one hand quite a strong, sweet almost caramel flavour which makes way for a bitter malty finish.

A traditional ale in many respects which is certainly drinkable but doesn’t provide any outstanding surprises to a seasoned bitter drinker.

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