Beer Review #2: Gold Tankard

From its home in Wylam, on the edge of Northumberland, Gold Tankard’s reputation has spread through Tyneside becoming a permanent fixture at many a pub. First created 12 years ago, Gold Tankard became Champion Beer at the CAMRA Tyneside Festival and Darwen Lancashire Festival. Originally residing in the pubs of the tranquil town of Wylam, Gold Tankard began making regular appearances at beer festivals, and can now be found in many locals up and down Tyneside. The Wylam beer has even managed to break on to the scene in Newcastle, a city that in recent years has become a wash with cheap vodkas and generic lagers. It’s well known that ale is the drink of proper blokes, and Gold Tankard can be found knocking about on the edges of town, talking football with its mates, and getting a round in while it sticks another quid in the jukebox, leaving watered down Fosters dancing to Abba in the Bigg Market.

With its smooth taste, with a hint of citrus, Gold Tankard is a top beer. However, despite its deserved popularity, I don’t think it is even Wylam’s best beer. The Wylam Brewery squad boasts both strength and depth, and for me Gold Tankard struggles to beat its comrades “Rocket”, named after the locomotive designed by the father of railways and Wylam’s most famous son, George Stephenson, and the soon to be re-released “Turbinia”, whose name derives from the world’s first turbine powered ship, designed by another Wylam lad, Charles Algernon Parsons. So not only do you get a superb beverage to sup on, you also get a little nugget of history to ponder over while supping the said beverage. I fully expect it to be argued in parliament that young adolescents should be weaned on to Wylam’s finest ales in an attempt to boost GCSE history results, and to phase out the drinking of tuppence hap'ney drinks such as Wkd and Smirnoff Ice. In Wylam Brewery’s words, “It’s proper beer”.