And thus the Christmas backlog posts begin! I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas with friends, family and beer much like I did. I’ve drank plenty of beers (with lots more still to be drank) and as such have a bunch of beers ready to hit the review chopping block. First up today I thought I’d review some real ale with Three Tuns Brewery’s ‘XXX The Pale Ale’. Three Tuns brewery, based in the town of Bishop’s Castle in Shropshire, received its brewing license back in 1642 making it the oldest working brewery in the UK. ‘XXX’ is their flagship pale ale coming in at 4.3% ABV and, like all their beers, brewed with their unique 125 year old yeast strain!

The beer pours a clear gold, one of the clearest beers I’ve ever seen in fact. Lovely, compact snow white head sits on top. The nose has that classic real ale sweetness coming through from the malts. The flavour is much like the aroma with a slightly sweet, light caramel flavour to it. There isn’t very much bitterness on the end at all making it rather refreshing and drinkable.

A quick note on the bottle art: Simple and slick. It’s got none of the fancy art craft beer has nowadays. Proper real ale bottle with all the information you need readily available.

Occasionally I like to remind anyone who happens to stumble across my reviews that not only are my scores all opinion they are also given when comparing to other beers in the same style and category, which is the case for this beer. Three Tuns XXX have obviously been doing something right over the last few hundred years because this is a very solid, classic real ale pale. It describes itself as a bitter on the side of the label, which I don’t think is true at all. However, it is light smooth a little sweet with a hint of hoppiness to it. Can imagine it is even better fresh of the cask pump! And a pleasant surprise, considering it is a real ale, it is also vegan!

Score: 7/10

Thanks for reading! Cheers!

If you’d like a snappier version of my reviews check out my Instagram!

Additional Information:

Style: Classic Pale Ale

Hops: Not Available

Malt: Not Available

IBU: Not Available

ABV: 4.7%

Gluten Free: No

Vegan: Yes!