We’ve gone for another new brewery for today’s beer! This one comes from Leeds based, North Brewing Co. and the beer is their best-selling American Pale Ale, Sputnik. It’s always fun trying your first beer from a new brewery so I was very excited going into this one!

Visually the beer has a really good straw coloured, haze to it. The nose has strong citrus notes but not of lemon, instead it has more of a grapefruit or perhaps pomelo aroma to it. Sputnik has a cracking carbonation to it and pushes the beer around the mouth to fully hit those taste buds. You get an initial heavy hit of hops with the flavour, which made me do a double take to check I wasn’t drinking an IPA! A pleasant, persistent bitterness on the finish that while I quite enjoyed was perhaps a little unexpected and I could see it putting off people who are fans of smoother pale ales.

A quick note on the can art: Nothing super noteworthy but a simple design is often memorable and effective and reducing the name to four characters sits well on the can.

On the whole this is a pretty fresh and crisp beer, coming in at nice 5% ABV, with the carbonation really improving on the experience. The level of hoppiness was unexpected but certainly not unpleasant. I could however see how the inherent bitterness might put some people off who were going in maybe expecting something different. Is it as out of this world as Earth’s first artificial satellite? No probably not, but it most certainly is a solid beer.

Score: 7/10

Additional Information:

• Hops: Not Available
• Malt: Not Available
• IBU: Not Available
• ABV: 5%
• Gluten Free: No
• Vegan: Yes!
• Purchase Price: £1.50 (4 for £6)
• Purchase Location: Tesco