John Smith’s Yorkshire Smooth Ale

John Smith’s – Yorkshire Smooth Ale

www.johnsmiths.co.uk/

Brewed by John Smith’s Brewery (Heineken UK)
Style: English Pale Ale
Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, England

John Smith’s Brewery in the small market town of Tadchester in North Yorkshire (“Ey up”), England, produces beers including John Smith’s, the highest selling bitter in the United Kingdom. It is one of the largest brewery’s in the UK

John Smith acquired the long established Backhouse & Hartley Brewery in 1852. A well run organisation and always utilising modern technology, John Smiths expanded rapidly. Following a series of acquisitions in the post-World War II period, the company became one of the largest regional brewers in the country, operating over 1,800 licensed premises. Although these acquisitions diluted the original family stake in the business to around than 10%. The company was taken over by Courage in 1970 for £40 million, who extended distribution of the brewery’s products into the South of England. Courage was acquired by Scottish & Newcastle in 1995, and the operations were purchased by Heineken in 2008.

Heineken, the bastards, were responsible for reducing the strength of the beer from 3.8 to 3.6% ABV., not much you might say, but I, like many others, bloody noticed it, small margins indeed! According to Heineken, the decision was taken in order to bring the product in line with the strength of its major competitors such as Tetley, Boddingtons and Worthington, which makes no fucking sense. Also increased the price, go figure!

The brewery currently brews and packages the ale brands John Smith’s Original, John Smith’s Extra Smooth (their best seller) and Newcastle Brown Ale, and the lager brands Foster’s, Kronenbourg 1664 (Kronenbourg is a Carlsberg-owned brand brewed under license by Heineken in the UK), Amstel and Tiger.

Their famous Magnet trademark was first registered in September 1908 in Brussels, and symbolised strength and can often be seen at the final post in the many horse races they sponsor, as well as on the can, of course!

John Smith’s became well known for a series of highly successful “No Nonsense“-themed television advertising campaigns, featuring the dour Yorkshireman character “Arkwright” during the 1970s and 1980s, followed by the comedians Jack Dee during the 1990s and Peter Kay since 2002. The brand also has an association with horse racing, both jump and in the flat, it was the principal sponsor of the popular English Grand National between 2005 and 2013.

In August 2012 John Smith’s announced a five-year sponsorship of the Kirklees Stadium in Huddersfield, home to football team Huddersfield Town and rugby league team Huddersfield Giants, which was renamed “John Smith’s Stadium”. In December 2016, this deal was extended for a further five years.

Review: 500ml can of John Smith’s Yorkshire Smooth Ale: 3.6% vol.

Comes in cans and on draught. Famous iconic logo, on green can, of the red magnet. Cans also come with the magical floating widget inside them.

So does the widget make any difference, lets see.

Yes, the appearance looks fantastic, very good creamy white head, with a copper colour. Looks as good as one can expect. Lacing present. 100% on the looks.

The aroma is very light on the nose, a real English ale style aroma for sure but not strong, not much of a whiff really, very faint and very disappointing. Sweet caramel and light malts on the nose.

Nice initial taste, getting the typical English ale type taste’s, nice creamy mouthfuls, lovely.

Immediate impression on drinking this was how light it was, definitely wasn’t as strong as I had remembered it. And sure enough I go and check and I see its 3.6 in Volume, a reduction. What the hell, “faffin about right there!”’

Could have a little more substance, but does the job, smooth, has a nice creamy texture and was very easy to drink. Getting the caramel, grains and hops, pale malts, all very light though.

Might be a little more adventurous in the general tastes and flavours, nothing really standouts but overall it was fulsome, well balanced in the tastes and I liked it, in terms of drinkability and how smooth it is to drink. But having had it from the tap, this is much weaker in the can in terms of not much in the taste, not much flavour, boring and all a bit plain. Perhaps the nitro carbonated it too much?