Beer of the Weekend #429: Tetley's Smoothflow

All righty. I just submitted my latest LV article and have decided to celebrate with a brown bottle lunch — which is actually in a can. It is a little something I picked up last weekend in Minnesota (but not on Sunday, of course): Tetley’s Smoothflow, brewed by Carlsberg-Tetley Brewing Ltd of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.


According to the Tetley’s Brewery Wikipedia page, the beer is no longer brewed in Leeds, its ancestral home. Production was moved to Northampton in 2011.

Frankly, I am not sure if Tetley’s Smoothflow is an entirely different beer or if this is a can of Tetley’s Original using Smoothflow technology. On RateBeer it is listed as “Tetleys Bitter / Original / Smoothflow,” but BA lists “Tetley’s Original Bitter” separately. Come on, people!

Serving type: 440 ml can. Printed on the bottom is “14/09/12 23:09,” which I assume was the canning date and time. There is no widget, thankfully.

Appearance: Poured into an imperial pint glass. The can opened with an angry gurgle and the beer poured like a light-colored nitro stout. The color is similar to sun tea. One finger cap of very dense and creamy head refused to dissipate. More power to it!

Smell: Like an English pale ale, though the aroma is on the lighter side. Grassy and earthy hops, pale malts, honey, sweet caramel, and lemon.

Taste: Smooth (of course) and creamy, but unspectacular. It mostly mirrors the smell, but the flavors are fairly diluted. It does, however, have a nice, earthy hop bite.

Drinkability: It is canned British ale. Tasty and decent, but nothing special. Enough said.

Fun facts about Tetley’s Smooth Flow:

-Style: “Light English Ale” is written on the can and BA classifies it as “English Bitter.”

-Price: I have no clue because I lost the receipt. Grr! I bought it at Richfield Liquor’s, though.

-Serving temperature: 45-50ºF.

-Alcohol content: 3.6 percent ABV.


The Quiet Man’s grade: C+.

Popular Posts