Fursty Ferret

All the way from Blandford, Dorset, UK comes the cutely named Fursty Ferret. An amber ale, this little brew is put together by Badger Ales, and brewed by Hall & Woodhouse. At a meek 4.4% alcohol, there isn't a lot of heft to this brew. It's sold in 500mL bottles adorned with the cutesy rodents swilling beer from a cask, and a very brief anecdote about curious ferrets wetting their whistle at a Dorset pub.

 

The beer is a barely hazy light brown ale. It pours under a decent coating of off-white head and has a malty, baked goods aroma. The flavour starts sweetly, with a malt backbone, and underlies by a faint raisin quality. The label told me to anticipate Seville oranges, but citrus wasn't immediately evident to my much abused palate. The finish has a pretty fair hops profile, though, which made this a little more memorable than the average English ale, nor was it overly metallic.

Fursty Ferret had a saccharine name, but the actual beer was pretty solid. Flavour was quite full for 4.4%, it was sweet, but not too sweet, and had an engaging finish. Obviously, I'd have liked a bit more boozy weight, but it still tasted nice. Because of the silly packaging and name, I assumed I wasn't going to like this beer, but t proved me wrong.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.