Vocation Golden Ale (collaboration with Fierce)

Tasting Summary

These comments are the opinion of the individual reviewer and represent what they thought of the beer on a particular day in a particular pub. If a review is less favourable, it may be because the beer suffered somewhere in the supply chain between them and the brewery.

The River Ale House, East Greenwich, Greater London

Who	Score	When	Notes
Hogan Sampling		19 Feb 2026	2nd beer of this visit: Fourth night on and not a lot of head and with its lacing not lasting on this golden ale from Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, and made in collaboration with Fierce Beer, located in Aberdeen, Scotland. A sweet fruity first bite. Flavours of orange zest and marmalade rapidly rising with floral hoppy hints and derived from its selection of British-grown hops. A late addition of Olicana hops, a British variety developed in the UK as part of the Charles Faram Hop Development Programme*, in the brewing process was made to deliver its specific notes of orange zest and marmalade. A tropical fruit or two most definitely exploding on the palate. A lingering hint of mango for me. Not really my cup of tea but it added a bit of excitement after the equally tired condition of the Old Skool bitter. Brewed with honey and selected hops, it also uses Roots Revival malts to champion UK regenerative farming in sourcing a climate-conscious variety in partnership with Paul's Malt to support soil health and biodiversity. *The Charles Faram Hop Development Programme was established in 2009 and is a breeding initiative aimed at creating sustainable, agronomically sound British hop varieties with "New World" aroma profiles. Olicana was released commercially in 2014 and developed to provide intense, tropical hop characters such as mango and grapefruit that are traditionally associated with American or Southern hemisphere hops but here using UK-grown plants.
Philip Pirrip	Not Tried	18 Feb 2026
Philip Pirrip	Not Tried	17 Feb 2026
Hogan Sampling	Not Tried	17 Feb 2026
Philip Pirrip	Not Tried	02 Feb 2026
Philip Pirrip		01 Feb 2026	Apparently honeyed but I did not pick that up. Good condition
Hogan Sampling		01 Feb 2026	Fresh on today and presenting a good frothy head and lacing sticking to the glass to the very end on this collaboration between Vocation from Cragg Vale, Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire, and Fierce Beer based in Aberdeen, Scotland. They have a history of working together on diverse styles. A lightly fruited first hit. A good dose of hoppiness rising from traditional British hops, likely to be East Kent Goldings or Fuggles, with dry floral notes winning over. The hint of a certain bear's favourite spread in sandwiches ambling up and also aided by modern hop varieties to achieve a sweet orange flavouring. A touch of maltiness to give this golden ale its colouring and likely to be from Maris Otter or Extra Pale Malt. A honey-infused hoppiness padding out and where a natural honey, Wildflower, was actually added to complement the floral notes of its English hops during the brewing at either the end of the boil, "flameout," or during "whirlpool" which is the term for a post-boil process where the wort (unfermented beer) is rapidly swirled in a circular motion, either by a high-velocity pump or by vigorous stirring with a paddle in homebrewing. Very moreish was this collaboration golden ale and so then stuck to it.