White Lady - abv 4.7%; £2/50cl (From York Press)

White Lady - abv 4.7%; £2/50cl

10:20am Saturday 28th April 2012 in Beer of the week By Jim Helsby

The North Yorkshire Brewing Company was founded in 1989 in Middlesbrough. Ten years later it relocated to old dairy buildings at Pinchinthorpe Hall, a moated house in the North York Moors National Park near Guisborough.

A wide range of cask and bottle-conditioned beers is produced, all made from organically grown ingredients and water from the house’s own spring.

This week’s offering is named after the ghost of a 17th century milkmaid who allegedly puts in the odd appearance at the brewery.

The colour is pale yellow with a yeasty haze, and a deep head that subsides fairly quickly to a thin collar. There is a slightly sweet, buttery aroma, with hints of digestive biscuits and mint, a lemony citrus edge and some light floral notes. Light, dry malt and gentle fruit dominate the palate with a little butterscotch creeping in, and a very soft, foamy carbonation.

A little note of honey and a light, dry, delicate hoppiness round off the finish.

Not quite the clean crispness that you might expect from a true lager, but a very pale, very subtle, and really rather delicious beer nevertheless.

Recommended by Jim Helsby of the York Beer And Wine Shop, Sandringham Street, York