Dark Star Sunburst Golden Ale - Beer Review

This one surprised me a little bit. It takes quite a few sips to decipher, but once the flavours start coming through it's actually much more than a standard Golden Ale, something I probably should have expected from the consistently good Dark Star brewery.

It pours a wonderful bright gold colour, with light carbonation and a small head that stuck around and laced the glass. The smell is very light, there's just a little grapefruit, and a grassy hop freshness, but not too much else.

The taste is classic British style summer ale, very fresh and bitter with grapefruit and a slight peach flavour, backed up by sweet caramel and digestive biscuit from the light malt. In fact, as you drink that malt does build up to be quite strong, but is just about kept in balance by those tart, citrus hops. All in all it's a refreshing, summery golden ale with enough depth to keep things interesting and plenty of hops that help it work pretty well in bottle form.

With regards to being in bottle, it's worth mentioning that summery British Pale Ales or Golden Ales are a style I've had limited success with in bottles, generally I prefer them on cask as they can be a little thin and insipid in the bottle. This was hoppy and flavourful enough to stand up though. A great beer for enjoying in the sunshine.

From May to August Sunburst is also available on cask so keep an eye out in your local, as I think it would be even better served in cask form.

Thanks to Dark Star for sending me this beer for review. You can buy Sunburst, along with some of their other beers, online at mybrewerytap.com