One of the hazards of drinking the same beer time and again, particularly when it comes to smaller breweries, is that you develop a soft spot for some beers that can be highly variable (tomorrow's beer falls into the same category). When Rudgate makes a good batch of Viking Bitter, which is cellared well, and poured perfectly, to my mind it is one of the great session beers to be found and a highly under-appreciated gem. Unfortunately, when those three conditions are not met it becomes thoroughly mediocre and has been known to suffer from a watery banality. The day I enjoyed my pint for review it was on absolute top form. A delicious malty flavor was balanced to perfection with a subtle bitterness and a hint of a hoppy finish. The type of pint of which dreams are made! At 3.8% it performs admirably as a session beer and is certainly the sort of drink that can be enjoyed over and over again. The trouble then becomes how to rate a beer that can be this variable. At its worst, it would rate in the region of 5.5/10 but at its best, this rises to the spectacular 8.5/10. Perhaps the best approach is to simply include the off days as a flaw and mark it down to a still respectable 7.5/10.
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