Tasting Notes: Windsor and Eton: Thorpe Park – The Swarm Lager

Windsor and Eton: Thorpe Park – The Swarm Lager (England: Pale Lager: 4.8% ABV)

Visual: Rich gold colour. Medium sized bubbled head that doesn’t last well. Lots of small bubbled carbonation.

Nose: Toffee. Light boiled eggs. Caramel popcorn. Brown bread.

Body: Malted milk biscuits. Toffee. Sour dough. Lightly oily. Slight muggy hop character.

Finish: Apple. Light lime. Chalk touch. Brown bread. Dry muggy toffee. Palma violets. Muggy hop character.

Conclusion: Ok, this has more body that Hyperia did, however it also doesn’t have that beers nice hop bitterness. Annoying, as the extra abv let them fix what I considered Hyperia’s big flaw, and then didn’t use it to its advantage by not having the hop bitterness that the bigger body would nicely offset for a better beer.

Ok, ok, lets look at this beer as a beer in itself, not just as a comparison to Hyperia, Let’s be fair to it. This is a quite sweet, slightly sticky lager, a touch thicker than I had expected. It probably could have done with being a bit cooler, which probably would have reduced the stickiness and helped it slip down easier. It has a slight oiliness, a bit muggy in hops, and generally toffee led. A fairly simple set.

It is kind of meh. However despite that I will say , I am impressed!

Lots of breweries find it hard to make lagers that stand out from each other, Thorpe have two lagers that are meh in COMPLETELY DIFFERENT WAYS.

What? It’s an achievement!

Background: Second Thorpe Park exclusive lager I have grabbed, again made by Windsor and Eton – This is the one my Friend Mark did a video on, making me aware of these beers’ existence. Best I can tell Swarm Lager is the newer of the two beers. Mark let me take advantage of his discount to get the beer at a marginally cheaper cost. Park alcohol prices are silly. I quite liked the swarm ride, though the theming looked so incredibly cheaply done. When you are on the ride going by fast it looks fine, but while queuing you can really see how cheaply it has been done – a pity as it was a nice ride otherwise. As mentioned I think I should have cooled this a bit more than I had, was a warm day, the can felt cool to touch, but the beer inside could prob have done with a tad longer. Ah well. Went with Paradise Lost: Icon 30 for backing music – I have just seen they are doing another live tour!