Potbelly Brewery at the Theberton Lion

The first Monday of the month at the Theberton Lion. For £5 you get five samples of between about 1/4 to 1/3 of a pint each. For February, Tom had announced a tap takeover by Potbelly Brewery from Kettering. I was rather excited by the chance to sample a range of beers from a brewery that I didn't know.

Except that it turned out I had come across them before! Harry had done his research on Untappd and found that we had drunk two Potbelly beers at the St Neotts day of dance in 2016. At the time I had rated their Best Bitter a 3 and their Captain Pigwash Porter just 2.75 on Untappd. Unfortunately I hadn't made any tasting notes as I was busy morris dancing. With this new information I wondered what the evening would have in store.

Entering the Lion we saw that Tom had Potbelly Best, Hop Trotter and Pigs Do Fly on tap. He had hoped to get some bottled beers in from Potbelly to complete our five beer tasting range, but sadly that hasn't been possible. So, two new brews and no repeat of the disappointing porter.

The Potbelly Best was our first beer of the evening. It had a slight caramel malt aroma but no distinct hop aroma. The caramel, and a bit of toffee was also present in the flavour, along with a little of the hedgerow fruit typical of an English bitter. However, for a best bitter it seemed rather thin. A bit more malt in the grain bill and a little less attenuation from the yeast might have given it a bit more body. Overall it was decent enough and I have it three stars again on Untappd.

Next up came the Hop Trotter, which is, apparently, a golden ale with "a wonderful burst of zest". I hadn't noticed that it was a golden ale, and I wouldn't have described it as one myself. It was very pale, pleasantly bitter, with a slight citrus flavour. Like the Best, it was rather thin of body, quite inoffensive and I gave it three stars on Untappd, but it offered nothing to get excited about.

Finally we came to Pigs Do Fly, another Golden Ale. This one was very slightly paler than the Hop Trotter but tasted almost indistinguishable from it - another three stars.

Altogether, these three beers were perfectly decent. I would quite like to try some more of their range; although I would hope for something with a little more character.