Anyone who lives in God's Own County will know about Yorkshire Mixture. Default car sweets for parents, but does it translate well into an IPA?
Made in Sheffield by Maxons, Yorkshire Mixture are boiled sweets in a number of flavours, shapes and sizes that are famous in Yorkshire.
Little Mesters in Sheffield have tried to turn this legendary confection into a session IPA as morish as the sweets, if that's even possible.
A malty flavour with an artificial sweetness in the aroma, pours quite thin with a fairly dark colour for an IPA. Despite the beer being named after boiled sweets, the initial flavour is actually fairly malty.
Once this fades there is a subtle sweetness there that is well balanced against the slight hoppy flavour and bitterness. The sweetness that is there isn't very strong, which for a beer named after boiled sweets is a great shame.
The aftertaste is a crisp and clean, very similar to a traditional bitter with the maltiness and sweet, fruity finish. As a session IPA it's a great drink, but as an homage to Yorkshire Mixture, not so much.
This can relies very much on a drinker being familiar with Yorkshire Mixture sweets in order to 'get' this can, as it's basically a can version of the sweet packaging.
The pale blue background, bold red 'Maxons' lettering and even the font are all right from the sweet packets, the only real unique feature is the band around the top and bottom which reads the brewery name at the top and 'made in Sheffield' at the bottom.
The old, grizzled Yorkshireman with his mutton chops, flat cap and crook; throwing a sweet into his mouth is also right from the packet, but given it's basically an homage to the sweets this is unsurprising.
If you don't know what Yorkshire Mixture is, then I can't recommend buying some enough to try them. This beer is also worth a purchase too, which you can get on Little Mesters site for £3.20.
Yorkshire Mixture will cost considerably less, and are even better.
