Greene King IPA Gold - Greene King / Morland Brewery (4.10% ABV)

Greene King (in the UK at least) is synonymous with the IPA brand and, until now, the only beer of theirs that I would have been able to name, would have been 'IPA'.  So IPA Gold is their relatively new foray into the bottled beer market.  Hopefully it is better than boring old 'IPA'.

Very clear and vivid appearance of golden caramel.  Decent white foamy white head offers only mild retention and lacing.

Aroma is... interesting: Lots of stale hops - slightly vegetal - and some skunkiness.  However, there is mild redemption in the form of honey, complex tropical fruits and some faint malt sweetness.  Faint whiff of lager at the back.

On initial tasting, there is a confusing muddle of flavours, with no real balance.  There are definite tropical fruits in there, with some citrus pith.  Malts give you some honey sweetness and corn flavour, before a frankly unpleasant metallic dryness strips the palate clean and lingers for far too long with more stale hops.
Not the best taste in the world... Tasting notes on the bottle mention spice, but it was about as spicy as a Korma, although there was maybe a touch of white pepper.

Body is medium, crisp with smooth carbonation - thumbs up in this department... However, as mentioned, that metallic/stale bite at the end just makes you wince, and the wacky balance doesn't help either

To be honest, I am not disappointed in this, as I was half expecting this to be crap and it was.  I'm not sure who this would appeal to, but I won't bother with it again.