Level Head Session IPA, Greene King

Level Head Session IPA 4%

Greene King has launched four new beers that reflect the brewery’s 200 year-old history along with the far older history of its home town, Bury St Edmunds.

The beers will be available on draught in selected Greene King pubs as well as in bottle. The range includes Flint Eye, a dry hopped lager named after a Neolithic flint arrow head found in the town. Western Zeph, a West Coast-style IPA is brewed with Godiva and Harlequin Hops, plus CF 184, a new hop that doesn’t yet have a name. Subterranean is an oatmeal stout based on a recipe dating from 1926 and takes its name from tunnels that once led from the local abbey to the brewery.

Level Head commemorates St Edmund, the original patron saint of England, who was beheaded by the Vikings in 869 AD and gave his name to Bury St Edmunds. The beer is brewed with pale malt and has a complex hop grist. Cascade is used in the copper and is joined with Centennial in the hop whirlpool, where the hopped wort is cleared of spent hops after the boil. Finally, the beer is “dry hopped” – the addition of fresh hops prior to packaging – with Centennial, Galaxy and Mosaic.

The beer has an aroma of tropical fruit, spicy hops, a touch of vanilla and honeyed malt.  There’s a big punch of fruit – melon and pink grapefruit – on the palate with honeyed malt and a touch of spice. The finish is hoppy and bitter but well balanced by fruit and malt and is pleasantly refreshing.

Level Head costs £2.25 for a 330ml bottle, available from

https://shop.greeneking.co.uk/