Summit’s Gold Sovereign Ale uses modern ingredients to “honor the pale ales of the Victorian era,” or so says brewery founder Mark Stutrud in a recent press release about the beer. Gold Sovereign is the sixth beer in the brewery’s Unchained series of limited edition craft beers; this particular installment is the brainchild of brewer Damian McConn. The premium bitter / ESB is available on draft at select locations (including The Muddy Pig, Turf Club, and The Blue Door) and should be available in bottles as of Mar. 21.
Bring Gold Sovereign to your nose and you get a waft of funky apricot, a hint of the complete package that awaits you. The beer presents an aggressive hop bite (the beer’s 60.5 IBU) — there’s a truly bitter character to body that is mediated (or compromised, or complemented, depending on your viewpoint) by a sweet, bready, fruitcake-like finish.
While it’s an initially challenging drink, Gold Sovereign mellows as you go, and the first bottle can quite naturally lead to the second… and so forth.
Gold Sovereign is a nice compromise between a substantial, dark, bready winter beer, and a crisp, light summer beer — if there’s such a thing as a spring beer, this may be it. Now if we’re fortunate enough to actually experience such a thing as spring, the beverage is at least sorted out.
Summit’s Gold Sovereign Ale
Style: Premium Bitter / ESB
ABV: 6.31%
IBU: 60.5
Color: Straw Gold
Malts: Organic Westminster Floor Malt
Hops: Boadicea, Sovereign, Pilgrim, First Gold
Yeast: UK Ale Strain
OG: 1.060 SG
Looking forward to trying this!
“if there’s such a thing as a spring beer, this may be it.”
actually, there is Spring beer. the Germans call it Maibock.
True, I could have phrased that better. “This is good spring beer,” would have worked.
I found it amiable but underwhelming.