Northdown Green Bear (collab with Hop Along Thanet) - Brown Ale

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.

Gadds' Beer Shop & Taproom, Broadstairs, Kent

Who	Score	When	Notes
Hogan Sampling		10 Oct 2026	1st beer of this festival visit: Came with very good head and lasting lacing on this brown ale from brewing set up in 2016 before moving shortly after to its grander digs on the Westwood Industrial Park in Margate, Kent, in May 2018 and running until sadly the shutters had to be put up in September 2026. A dry hoppy first hit on this particular dark mahogany drop, named "Green Bear”, and a quintessential Northern English Brown Ale crafted in cahoots with the garden-allotment street scholars of the Hop Along Thanet collective, using fresh green hops in the brew*. A fruity hoppiness rising from the copper kettle being loaded with a combination of locally grown green Fuggles behind a woody, earthy and herbal note, garden-harvested Prima Donna (a dwarf Goldings variety) unleashing a fresh floral spice, and the classic British Northdown hops lending a sharp bitterness paired with hints of pine and berry fruitiness detectable to me leading to a spicy-herbal snap that cuts clean through the heavy grain in overcoming the dark sweetness. Its maltiness joining in from this mash’s marry-up of Maris Otter behind a sweet, biscuit base tasting like fresh-baked bread crusts, Crystal exuding a caramel and treacle sweetness, and Chocolate malts punching out toasted nuts and roasted cocoa. A toasty symphony on my palate where the nutty character marries the sweet treacle to satisfy my whistle perfectly. An earthy, floral touch lingering. Served in top condition and saluting Northdown Brewery’s running for a decade before dwindling sales and rising costs caused the operation to cease running. *The clever twist here is that this brown ale is a green hop beer combined. While most traditional green hop beers are brewed as golden or pale ales to show off the grassy notes of the fresh harvest, the Hop Along Thanet collective and Northdown Brewery did it differently in taking the freshly plucked, un-dried green hops straight from the local allotments.