Golden XPA and King John at the Half Moon, Windlesham

Walked over the fields to the nearby village of Windlesham to the sprawling Half Moon pub. It's one of those places that has realised that profit lies on the plate, not the pint glass, and as such has given over a vast percentage of its public area to a restaurant, leaving the actual bar area very much secondary. 

Despite this, the Half Moon still manages to have a decent selection of ales on offer. Given my earlier pleasing experience with the Caledonian Brewery's 'Flying Scotsman', I first went for a pint of that brewery's 'Golden XPA'. 

Now I love a good IPA, and I was making the assumption that "golden" means "premium" and "XPA" is some top version of IPA. Not sure if either's true, but nonetheless the beer was pretty decent if nothing superb. It's certainly fruity and summery, and vaguely hoppy if not properly powerful like the Hawkshead or Jaipur. 

Next up was King John from the Andwell Brewery. 

This was described as a "pale ale", but in truth it was a chestnut ale:

It was fairly biscuity and malty, with a hint of fruit and toffee, and fairly flat on the carbonation front. It was palatable if, frankly, dull.