Bath Ales' Lansdown West Coast IPA

Lansdown West Coast IPA
Bath Ales
5.0% ABV Bottled

I think it’s apt that I break my silence with a review of the latest offering from the mighty Bath Ales - freshly bottled from their new Hare Brewery in Warmley, Bristol. Having had some major expansion, the brewery seems to be kicking things up a notch, declared by their new presentation and beers added to their already formidable stable. I’m keen to get my lips around Sulis, their English Lager. However, today, I’m reviewing their West Coast IPA: Landsdown.

It’s definitely tipping a cap to the now prolific US tradition of highly-hopped, citrus inflected IPA brewing but there is still the essence of England running through its amber-gold body.

To sniff, Lansdown carries the expected almost grapefruit floral aromatics and this is coupled with zest, hops (but of course) and a hint of basil from the US style. After a while, though, the fields of England come rolling in with barley that seems  to perfume the glass along with honey-scented sweetness which seemed to also hang around my tongue long after tasting.

The sip is nowhere near as bitter as I expected; it still is bitter but crisp rather than anything too acrid or like the fistful of rocket punched into your buds that some American IPAs can smash you about with. This delivers a dry yet quenching freshness with caramel notes spiraled by the pine of hops and exhalted with echoes of barley malt. 
I’m drinking this on a hot day in May with sunshine blasting my pale, English face and this seems to be exactly how this beer is best enjoyed. The more I drink it, the more I start to taste the hops giving way to the aroma and reminiscence of goldening mown grass. It’s very drinkable. It’s making me look forward to summer. I hope this is a statement of their intent at Bath Ales: it's a very bold, delicious one!

Mena Dhu

Mena Dhu by St. Austell Brewery

Style: stout, stout porter 

Try if you like: Bath Ales 'Darkside', Guinness original, Fullers London Porter, dark chocolate, coffee, roasted vanilla flavours, demerrera sugar.

If you've read any of my previous posts, you'll know I have a soft spot for Cornwall and it's brewing output and when I visited Clovelly (actually in Devon - we 'skipped the border for a day) whilst holidaying in Cornwall last summer, I came across a half pint of this: the mighty Mena Dhu - St.Austell Brewery's signature stout. It is, simply put, sublime. It is everything a stout should be but, as Spinal Tap so elequently put it, turned up to 11. As far as I have tried, this is the perfect stout: thick, luxurious head, smooth and chocolately body with all those coffee and toasted malt notes you so crave from something so richly coloured and kissed by treacle. From amidst this mocha and hop infused fog flits the undertone of vanilla and smoke which is what gives this brew the elevation above many in its peer group. All of this and very little weight mean that you could go for a few before realising it. I enjoyed my half pint in the summer sunshine with the sea breeze wafting over my catatonic face and it didn't feel a joy out of place - who says stouts are for winter? If you can find this anywhere bulk buy the stuff. 

I have to congratulate St.Austell: they've produced something nothing short of legendary. I look forward to the day this gets some serious 'mainstream' attention.

A beer dripping with class: Schiehallion.

Name: Schiehallion

Brewery: 

ABV:

Style: pale lager.

Found it: My wife picked it up in Waitrose.

Try if you like: The dryer, hoppier side of life like Hop House 13 by Guinness, IPA's of both American and European persuasions and dare I say it, champagne!


You smell this beer coming a mile away. The nose is one of the crispest I have ever scented. Amid this current soul-melting heatwave, the intensely crisp, fresh and hoppy aroma of this wonderful lager will lift your molten soul to cool summer nights amid freshly mown meadows and sunsets golden and bronzed. Forgive me my poetic pretensions - this does smell incredible and certainly invites the drinker with tantalizing promises of refreshment and on that front, it certainly does not shy away.


Just because a beer is refreshing doesn't mean it has to be light on flavour as so many pale beers tend to be (think Corona - light on body and character sadly) - this just simply is not the case with Schiehallion and it entertains an unconventional juxtaposition: it is both refreshing and rich. The taste has depth; a depth not too far removed from treacle sweetness which is mashed down and tempered by hop bitters and the finish echoed the spirit alcohol tinge you sometimes attribute to brandy - perhaps why the champagne element is cited by the on-bottle blurb. According to said blurb, whole pressed hop cones feature in the alchemy and this may account for this floral nose and intense aromatics. It is a beer of distinction and needs to be sampled. If, like me, you prefer more malt and brown sugar with your beer, then you may find its hoppy grassiness a little overwhelming but I just couldn't ignore the complexity of this nectar's architecture and so I was seduced by it. I couldn't help but appreciate the form. I can't believe I just referred to a beer's flavour as being architecture...

Dublin: the lighter side of porter.

Name: Dublin Porter.
Brewery: Guinness, St. James's Gate, Dublin.
ABV: 3.8%
Style: Porter.

Availability: Widely available in most supermarkets.

What I paid for mine: £1.79 (Tesco).

Try if you like: Coffee, dark chocolate, vanilla, stout, porter, dark ale.

When I'm about to drink a porter, there is a volume of expectation with a bar set extremely high by both Fuller's London Porter and the similarly syrupy Anchor Porter: I want a porter to be rich, dark, smokey and bittersweetly indulgent which both of these aforementioned ales most certainly are. Guinness have made a porter which brings forth some of these things but also foregoes and in their place are some surprises - ones that were a welcome change and a fresh interpretation of something I deeply adore: the porter.

Guinness have been 'upping their game' of late no doubt thanks to all the microbrewery shenanigans that have been dominating the brewing headlines for the past five years and anyone who has been reading this blog for a wee while will know what I think of their recent Hop House 13 lager, released as part of the 'Brewer's Project' range. Dublin porter also hails from this recent mega-engagement that the empirical St. James's Gate brewery has been making with the modern market. I'm very pleased to say that those lads and ladies in Dublin have made a porter definitely worth spending time with. At 3.8%, nobody is going to need a stomach pump before they operate heavy machinery post-Dublin consumption and you don't feel that in the head at all. What surprised me the most was that nor do you feel it in the stomach: this is a light porter. You could session this boy. That's right: session. It's that light.

However, this 'lightness' come with a compromise on indulgence: where some porters are essentially smoked-treacle-sumptuousness, Dublin forgoes the real smack of full body and as a result, has a slightly more measured flavour than you might expect from this type of beer. I feel that I must interject myself here, though, and state that this is not a negative for the brew in any way, shape or form: it simply is just lighter. I dare say it is also more refreshing than any other porter I have tried and this is what surprised me the most: it was fresh both on the nose and the tongue.

The characteristic porter treacle-brown is definitely presented in the pour and on the palette but, as I mentioned before, it is measured in favour with more a vanilla tone as opposed to the traditional dark chocolate smoke and I mean it when I say vanilla: it is most certainly there more so than the caramel the bottle cites. These smokey flavours are definitely there but they come in the echo of the finish and the memory of baking biscuit will waft from the back of your throat as you finish your drop. 

You keep going back for sip after sip awaiting the weight of the beer to come in yet it never does. You do get coffee and you do get toasted malt but a reserved delivery is the overall experience. I can really see this doing well as a beer to enjoy when watching outdoor sport in Autumn and winter and its lighter percentage will mean you can actually engage in critical analysis of the action with your comrades without needing to concentrate like a neurosurgeon. Guinness have made a good porter hear and if you do find some porters a little too sickly or indeed, find Guinness draught too thick and disappointing, this is a fantastic antidote. 

Sea Fury - finally, the storm reaches my shores!

Name: Sea Fury
Brewery: Sharps, Cornwall
ABV: 5%
Style: Special Ale
Where I found mine: Sainsbury's and Tesco for around £1.90

Try if you like: Gem, Broadside, stronger ales like Fullers 1845, dark fruits, raisins and rum, treacle.

If the majority of you, my dear readers, are anything like me, you'll be familiar with discovering a beer then spending a good hour  or two looking through the brewery's website, longingly flitting through their full range and forlornly admiring the breadth of output on offer as only one or two of the stable will ever be in your everyday reach. I often do this with Theakstone (as all I've ever seen in the flesh is XB and the gorgeously rich Old Peculier). I used to count Sharps of Rock, Cornwall amongst this company but thanks to the ever climbing profile of their most famous beer, Doombar, the rest of their paddock is seeing the light of day in supermarkets. 

One beer I particularly used to hanker for is the very one I found in my local branch of Tesco of all places: Sea Fury. Those who have read this will know what I think of Doombar (to save you reading the review - although please do! - I adore the stuff) and my expectations for this ale were set very, very high indeed. Sharps know what they are doing. They also seem to brew with my palette in mind. If that is the case, in my narcissistic mind, they brewed this beer bespoke to my own mouth. After reading it's profile on the home website, (I'll admit more than a few times) I knew we'd get along famously. How foolish And pessimistic I was to think I would never, ever possess one.

The darker side of brewery is where my preferences seem to go and when the weather turns on us here in the UK, after spending so little time with us in true heart-breaker fashion - I feel my beer-soul yearning those autumnal, stewed fruit and smoke flavours. Imagine then, how my grizzled British psyche felt when I first read the words: "An aroma of inviting roasted and dark berry notes gives way to sumptuous, fruity, malty flavour and a moreish hop finish." on the Sharps website. It danced like frolicking Morris dancers 'neath a sun-blushed maypole (Freudian slip?). I cannot begin to tell you how true to this description it is to actually drink...oh okay, maybe I will!

Rich. A wave of richness and a depth of stewed and rum-soaked dark fruits and roasted malts tumbling, crashing and rolling in biscuity malt sweetness that just keeps giving and giving and giving before receeding out to leave you in a misting of hop bitterness that never really finds a sharp edge but balances the rich sugars very well indeed. If you have tried strong ales, you'll love this and from tasting it, you'll be wondering how the percentage is only 5% abv: it does not taste like a beer of that measure: it belongs with the Old Dan's and Fullers 1845. However, it doesn't floor you as they do but it does arrest the senses and drag you down into its chestnut brown depths. Sea Fury is an apt moniker for the way the beer feels in the mouth: it is delicately carbonated and as odd as this may sound, it feels in the mouth like the churning foam seen in rough, shale-breaking surf around this fair isle's coasts. It's as if you were tasting the churn from the breakers of an indulgent, malt-steeped ocean: taste it and you will hopefully know what I mean - it is a unique mouthful that gives you a passionate, raisiny plunge. Unless you can't tell already, I think Sharps have made an incredible special ale here and it really does suit the shift from summer to autumn. I'm so exited to try this again and as with all beers I find and adore, I fear it's time being as fleeting as the summer sun: long may this furious brew batter our supermarket shelves! An absolute modern classic that has shot up into my favourites list.

Honeydew Time Machine

Name: Organic Honeydew.
Brewery: Fullers, The Griffin Brewery Chiswick, London.
ABV: 5% (bottle & tap)

Style: organic golden ale.

Availability: Available in most good supermarkets and numerous pubs in and around London and Berkshire.

What I paid: £1.99 at Waitrose.

Try if you like: Crisp, cold lagers with some actual flavour, imagine a floral, honeycomb-inflected European lager with very little hoppy bitterness.

As I write this, the sound of pouring rain is yammering on the rooftop and the trees outside the window are sagging in the wind: it is fair to say that British Summertime has gone the way of the Mayfly: deserted pastures familiar and not set to return again for another year. The autumnal damp is outstretched before us and that overcast blanket of smearing grey they call 'sky' is with is until June next year.

Beer can break the seasons. There is no need to despair. Summer sunshine can be and has been bottled. Ladies and gentleman, I give you Fullers Honeydew.

The gold of a July sunrise has been locked into every single bubble and drop of this pale straw organic brew shimmering with a colour like pale honey which, coincidentally, is what the beverage takes its name after as the bee's best is used in the brewing.

As one would expect from such a marriage, the flavour is an incredibly refreshing and sweet ballet with the dryness of hops with very little bitterness resulting at the finish. Instead, you are treated with a crisp edge and malty flourish just as the sip ends which isn't too far removed from territory usually occupied by a continental lager. 

Indeed, Honeydew is a wonderful pint to quench that dusty summer thirst with - it is instantly refreshing with a flavour that holds itself best when served chilled as you would a lager. Richness is spared in favour of keeping the whole experience light and somewhat nectared as the honey intermingles with the bubbles allowing for this to be a true Summertime quaffer. 

Every drop of this ale takes me back to summer sunsets when my friends and I would partake of a glass or three up at a pub in Harrow-On-The Hill from which we could see the microcosm of countryside they have up there and watch a fairer part of the capital be bathed in the late day glow. If you yourself ever tire of the grey and the drudgery: fill a glass with some of this beer and lay back and think of Summer. 

A Stout that Surprises: Supreme champion at Camra - Bingham's Vanilla Stout

The Name: Vanilla Stout.

Brewery: Binghams, Twyford.

ABV: 5% (bottle).

Style: Stout.

Season: Autumn/Winter

Availability: I picked mine up at The Grumpy Goat, Reading town centre. 

Price I paid for it: £2.75.

Try if you like: Porter, stout, coffee, treacle, smoke, dark chocolate.

If you're reading this blog, there's a strong chance that you are aware of this beer thanks to it very recently winning Camra's Supreme Champion Beer award 2016. Just reading the name of this beer convinced me it was worthy of success: I love the sweeter, darker spectrum of beer - porters and stouts (see my review of Bath Ale's Darkside and Fuller's London Porter) are so dependably good and offer almost a dessert-like quality to the ale afficinado. Sampling this was an absolute no brainier. 

The expression of 'stout' brings with it a whole host of expectations (darkness of colour, woodsmoke and roasted coffee in aroma and a dark chocolate bitterness in finish) and like all of the finest examples of breeds, this stout both is typical of its stable but also surprising in its idiosyncrasies. Familiar yet different. Typical yet surprising. You couldn't ever accuse this beer of being generic.

Being bottle conditioned, I had to take some actual care over the pour and keep that fizz-giving organism of yeast where it belongs. As it poured, what gathered in the bottom of the glass looked treacle-dark and set up aromatics of bonfire and roast coffee with an underlying chocolate hint - a rather Christmassy element to the whole affair. At this point in the pint, the vanilla didn't register for me and oddly, it didn't come through heavily in the taste either - not obviously anyway - where the vanilla came in was perhaps the most surprising element to this masterfully crafted brew.

To taste, you're hit with a mouthful of rich smoked chocolate and coffee yet sweetness that you would expect to arrive (perhaps as you would with a porter) is very reserved and carefully held in place by the hopping and the roasted malts. Smoke is ever present, like your clothes the day after a bonfire but it is a very pleasant richness, running like velvet through the mouthfeel as it intermingles with the coffee notes. The curveball and perhaps what draws you back in for the next sip is the almost champagne floral element, which is where the vanilla comes in - whereas I expected it to float through the whole flavour with prominence, it actually conducts its delicate perfume from the back and exists as an under-current throughout the whole drinking experience. I mean what I say when I talk of a champagne element: there is a fruitiness here that doesn't allow this pint to become sickly (although I must admit the 5% ABV made my tummy warm!) and this was the real surprise for me: to be reminded of champagne when drinking a stout!

Amongst this swirling bonfire of flavour is a nod to root beer: an almost liquorice note that again reminds you that vanilla is used in the mix but I mention this as a hint: it is not anise in strength and will in no way draw in black-jacks - the effect is subtle and warming: another pleasant surprise.

This beer exudes control - molasses should be awash with a concoction this dark but all is checked and measured: there is nothing clumsy about the delivery - the flavours are orchestrated. If you are after a stout that breaks new ground, pick up one of these and you'll find that. This drop is an utter indulgence for the senses.

Tribute: a masterclass in balance.

Name:Tribute.
Brewery: St.Austell, Cornwall.
ABV: 4.2% (bottle).
Style: Pale Ale
Season: Summer/Autumn

Availability: Available in most good supermarkets.

What I paid: £1.79 (Waitrose).

Try if you like: Bitters, pale ales, Sharps Doombar and Atlantic, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.

When I read the words 'Pale Ale' I generally have reservations: my pallet doesn't seem to agree with many (Brewdog Punk for example just hop-blasts me to oblivion!) and the current trend for American IPA's are, in my opinion, overcrowding pumps, cans and bottles with their 'craft' hop barrage. So why did I approach a Pale Ale from St.Austell? Hype. Talk. People seem to have a lot of love for this beer. That and St.Austell's recent aquisition of my beloved Bath Ales made me very curious.

This beer is a masterclass in balance. 

It pours out the most caramel I think I've ever seen a beer: it looks like a shade of golden syrup! On the nose, you'd think it was going to be incredibly fizzy as the hops and zest (what some describe as 'grapefruit') waft nose-ward. However, this is not a gassy number: it's delicately carbonated and not too heavy at all: you could almost session this Cornish beauty.

Surprise came with Tribute when it delivered more than I could ever have hoped for in flavour. It's nose outlines its Pale Ale credentials but in delivery, you get so much more than that: a demerrera sweetness and malty unctuousness is delicately wrapped and woven in and out of hop zest: the drop does a waltz on your tongue in waves - the front hits sweet from the Maris Otter and Cornish Gold malts; at the half-way, you're kissed with the refreshing and zesty cushion of floral hops and then the wave crashes with a biscuity, caramel toffeeness that leaves you with the echoing sea-spray of a light bitter finish. It leaves you wanting more. It takes Pale Ale expectations and delivers an incredibly well rounded bitter finish. All of this expert balance means you could snuggle up with one of these on a cold Autumn evening or crack one open overlooking the lapping ocean on that rarest of occasions a hot summers day (in Britain at least). Pale ale fans have enough of their bitterness and citrus edge to indulge their penchant for the more refreshing end of the spectrum yet those that enjoy a Best Bitter will also find   joy at the bottom of this bottle.

I made reference to Doombar and Atlantic from their neighbours Sharps - imagine them crossed if you can and you're not far off Tribute. Imagine Sierra Nevada with a more caramel edge. I hate to draw comparisons because really this beer deserves singular recognition. Cornwall is a place dear to my heart and they, as a County, cannot help but produce some of the best beer Britain has to offer. Tribute is a fitting tribute to my favourite county in Britain: Cornwall can be very proud of this little lovely and indeed, St.Austell have brewed an absolute champion here. 

I love this beer.

Thank you St.Austell!

Gem: Perhaps the greatest beer ever brewed.

Name: Gem

Brewery: Bath Ales

ABV: 4.8% (bottle)

Style: best bitter

Season: All year long!

Availability: Available all year: Waitrose have a steady supply it seems.

Price I paid for it: £1.90 at Waitrose. Sainsburys also seem to have a healthy supply!

Try if you like: Doombar, Rebellion Red, Abbot Ale, bitter, sweet malts.

Don't let the title of this post lure you into thinking this is delusional hyperbole: this has to be one of the most perfectly executed pints I have ever sipped. Normally, when people talk of a 'good all-rounder' they usually mean a 'jack of all trades - master of none'. Gem is an outstanding all-rounder and is in no way, shape or form a 'master of none': it is a 'master of all'. 

The colour of this beauty from Bath is a deep-set chestnut amber with comparisons easily made with the sublime Sharps Doombar from Rock in Cornwall. The flavour also is reminiscent of that same drop: malty, morish, bitter-sweet but with absolutely no sourness or tannin tack at the back of the palette: the flavour eclipses Doombar in one respect and that is in that it refreshes at the first taste. It is rich, however, for a bitter and potent at 4.8% and a few of these at The Rec has had me very merry before the half-time whistle! This, however, does not put you off wanting another - the taste of almost caramel-hinted sweetness tempts you in again and again.

This beer is an award-winner (winning silver and gold at the International Beer Challenge) and when drinking it, you can understand why. It is everything you want from a beer: rich tasting, well-hopped and surprisingly light on its feet for its strength, this coming from the combination of Goldings Hops from Kent and the floor-malted Marris Otter Barley. The brewery's website calls this offering 'quintessentially English' and it certainly is, I think, our nations best expression of its brewing standard. Try this beer at any point in the year and you'll be rewarded with flavour and texture to die for. This brewery just goes from strength to strength and you can tell that their exceptional work stems from the solid foundations of this exquisite pint.

Imagine taken from: https://www.bathales.com/our-ales/aid/gem/

Review: Fullers London Porter.

Name: London Porter.
Brewery: Fullers, London.
ABV: 5.4%
Style: Porter.
Season: Winter.

Availability: Can be found in supermarkets around late Autumn/Winter. 

Try if you like: Guiness original, Hobgoblin, Old Peculier, Anchor Porter.

A beer style from the Industrial Age that died out after the impact of wartime restrictions but today, very much alive and well and enjoying a massive and well-deserved resurgence (and aren't I grateful for it!) - the Porter is a very dark brew with a bittersweet chocolate-coffee appreciation. Fullers Lonond Porter is a classic expression of the breed: brown, crystal and chocolate malts give it a distinct treacle brown, reminiscent of dark chocolate and a flavour encompassing coffee, dark demerara with the background notes of vanilla. You would also be forgiven for thinking that someone from the brewery went out and captured essence of logfire too as there is a delightful, subtle smokiness within this is festive draw. After having one myself yesterday (after seeing the delightful new Star Wars film with a good friend at the IMAX Empire) I certainly felt my yearnings for the dark side of brewery and the joy of this pint is that it is surprisingly light for its punch and complexity, bringing balance to the force (please forgive me). I dare say, at 5.4%, I certainly felt its influence but not in the stomach meaning that this would sit very nicely as an after-supper pint to be sipped and savoured - good lord, in front of a roaring fire if we could all arrange a Dickensian evening. This is a smashing tipple and perfect for this time of year when preserved fruits, chutneys, rich puddings and logfires abound. A drink that manages to capture that smokey stillness of a Winter's day. Sublime and indulgent but won't induce a post-roast dinner coma! Tis the season to be Porter! No festive beer appreciator should allow themselves to miss one of these this Winter-time. For me, it is more traditional than that monstrous steamed pudding or chestnuts roasting on a fire. If you could shove a sprig of holly in it without causing a health and safety disaster, I'd say it was more Christmassy than Santa's jingling bells!

Review: Golden Champion

Name: Golden Champion
Brewery: Hall & Woodhouse, Dorset.
ABV: 5%
Style: Golden Ale
Season: Spring/Summer but really, any time you fancy something more than a cold lager can deliver.

Availability: Most major supermarkets.

Try if you like: Crisp, full-bodied lagers such as Pilsner Urquell, Fursty Ferret.

This is the beer that started it all. Back in 2005, I first saw a bottle of this adorned in sun blushed labelling with a dark, brown glass bottle and gold lettering. It was the first 'ale' I had ever held in my hands. It tasted wonderful. Grown up. Better than lager. Of the earth, the field, the country. I adored it. I still do. Today, it is slightly at odds with my favourite flavours of subtle caramel, morish malt and dark roasts but then that is probably why I love it: it isn't these things but still manages to finish sublimely whilst reminding me of a more naive time. Cut grass, pollen and summer freshness burst forth from the soft bubbling, shining copper brew. A wonderful golden straw not far off golden syrup in tone. Crisp, refreshing but with that depth of hop and malt that remind you this isn't a gassy, dilute lager or sharp pilsner: there is a slight coriander tone that keeps things from the garden and the echo of maltiness that give you something sweet and bodied to consider. Summer in a cup, in a quaff, in a mouthful. Perfect with a barbecue, on a picnic or whenever you want. Maybe it is nostalgia that really wins this for me? Or maybe it is that, whenever I go to a friends house, they tell me: "You left a bottle of ale here" and it is always a Golden Champion and I most certainly didn't leave it (but they buy me one every time I'm going to pop by and keep up the pretence!). I love this beer. I know it is winter and you are roasting chestnuts on the open fire but whilst you sit there in your thick knitwear, the rain drizzling down the windows and the sky churning an endless, miasmic grey just pop a bottle of this open and journey back to August. 

For more info go to: http://www.hall-woodhouse.co.uk/beer/golden-champion

Follow me on Twitter: @FullFlagon

Review: Bishop's Finger

Name: Bishop's Finger
Brewery: Shepherd Neame, Kent.
ABV: 5.4%
Style: Strong bitter
Season: Autumn firstly but on a very late, balmy summer evening: especially wonderful!

Availability: Most major supermarkets.

From the garden of England and the home of many famous hop varieties comes Bishop's Finger of Shepherd Neame. With a name sounding somewhat like a niche love-act or a Carry-On esque innuenddo than a beer, the punchline comes with an ABV of 5.4%. This makes for a surprisingly heady brew and this pint is a real draw of potency that sneaks up on you. For its colour and strength (pouring out a maple-sultana chestnut brown), the delivery is rather delicately handled: there is a hop bitterness that makes this quite refreshing especially when served cold. As the drop starts to warm, a malty sweetness begins to bloom on the palate but make no mistake, this is a bitter albeit extremely well handled. The front notes are sweet with a slight smoke to the malts but as it finishes, things start to twinge with the air of steeped winter berries and as you draw breath, you would swear brandywine had something to do with the maturation. There is another flavour here that eminates up and around like the air of a late summer evening: call me romantic or even foolish (or maybe under the spell of the Bishop's rather boozy fingering!) but there is the haunting of polished wood or dare I say it, the scent of nostalgia: the dampening of grass as the late August evenings start to wane and the barbecue embers start to fade. This is a beauty of a beer and although not often visited by myself, I always appreciate an evening with the Bishop, when he comes a-calling!

Nuts to the Ratings!

Ratings: who ever cared about ratings? High ratings are no guarantee of quality and indeed, some of the most prolific novels, films and texts have been bigger hits than their ratings ever were. Beers are like poetry: they mean so many different things to different people and so, because of this, I am going to be removing ratings from my reviews. I want the reader to make their own conclusions about a beer based on their own tasting, hopefully motivated by what I have professed. What works for you may not work for me: every now and again, we may beet in the middle! I dare say, we could even agree! My reviews were meant to help you make a decision and I feel it a condescension to suppose to rate a beer. Drinkers are discerning and breweries work incredibly hard to forge the product that they do. Fortitude and diligence and heart go into brewing: who am I to stamp a rating on such master works? Sucks to the rating! Here's to drinking!

Review: Old Hooky

Name: Old Hooky
Brewery: Hook Norton, Oxfordshire
ABV: 4.6%
Style: Amber Ale
Season: Autumnal

Availability: Most major supermarkets.

Old Hooky is a beer I'd heard some good things about (lots of 'Top Ales of GB' lists make a nod to Old Hooky) and so I had to get myself a bottle. To summarise, I feel like this beer is inches away from perfection but with a disposition like mine, crashes swiftly away from it at the last minute. It's all about the back of the palate and the finish. Pouring out this Amber ale was like watching maple syrup settle into my glass and the light froth bubbling up promised a slightly carbonated body, which certainly made itself known upon the sip: not too gassy mind, just the right amount to lift it beyond becoming weighty. At first taste, I thought this would be a very rapid addition to my favourites list: a malty front which provides a sweetness along similar lines to darker sugars and there are definite whispered hints of toffee or caramel in the air. Surprisingly, there is a floral note - an earthiness that reminds me of fallen autumn leaves: a real freshness that cuts straight through that demerara element to create a finish on the back of the palette that is, for me, just far too bitter. This final finish spoiled the deIivery for me (anyone who has read my previous reviews on Old Peculiar and Darkside will know I have a penchant for the sweeter side of taste) and I found that, the more I drank, the more this bitterness completely overthrew the pleasure of the sugared malt and all that delicate floral edge was torn apart by clumsy hop bitters. If you prefer your pint slightly more on the bitter side (like a Windsor & Eton Guardsman) then this may really appeal but if, like me, you prefer the morish and malty, you'd best head for something sweeter like the mighty Cornish Doombar or Bath Ales incredible Gem (which I cannot wait to review soon!).

Review: Fursty Ferret

Name: Fursty Ferret
Brewery: Hall & Woodhouse, Dorset.
ABV: 4.4%
Style: Amber Ale
Season: Summer but really, let's face it, any time of year: that's the beauty of it!

Availability: Most major supermarkets.

From the Badger brewery (or Hall and Woodhouse - a family-run business for generations) comes Fursty Ferret, a real lesson in balance. This is, for me, one of the great session beers and suitable for absolutely any time and any occasion: not too gassy, not too heavy, not too malty and not too hoppy: pure and absolute balance in a glass. The colour is a coppery gold which whispers of the morish and malty under flow to this pint. Coupling this almost biscuity undercurrent is an interweaving of floral hops with the tiniest hint of something citrus but don't get me wrong, this isn't overly bitter at all: just when it gets too hoppy, the malt flurries in and likewise, just as the richness of malt might dominate, there comes an updraft of fizz and freshness that takes you from autumn to spring in a single sip. We all have dependable regulars in all facets of our lives and Ferret is certainly one of those: an all-rounder that you can rely on to deliver when you may be overwhelmed with choice or simply just not sure what to go for. I wish more pubs served it owing to the fact that if you can't decide on a lager or an ale then you would have the Ferret to satisfy all your demands. Almost proving its 'Jack-of-all-trades' persona, this little beauty also comes in cans! 

Check out the brewery website for further info: http://www.hall-woodhouse.co.uk/beer/fursty-ferret

Review: Bath Ale's Darkside

Name: Dark Side
Brewery: Bath Ales, Warmley, Bristol.
ABV: 4.0%
Style: Strout
Season: Autumn/Winter but in fairness, like so many things, whenever you can get it!

Availability: Mostly around the Bristiol/Bath area. On sale at The Rec, where I indulged in mine on my pilgrimage to see Bath play.

Dark Side is an extremely fitting name for this ebony brew: a very deep, ruby-chestnut stout that looks every bit as a stout should but with none of the weight and cloy of the more famous expressions of the breed. Dark Side has redefined what a stout can be and for a beer that is only 4.0%, it is imbued with a rich pedigree of flavour. Each sip acts as a coffee bean wrapped in smoked chocolate and finishes with a refreshing, bitter edge; slightly carbonated to avoid the brew turning into syrup: Dark Side has a refreshingly lifted mouthfeel and is both slightly fizzy yet smooth on delivery. These slow burning tastes and textures are the result of a marriage between dark roasted malts and the majestic, legendary Fuggles hop (I'm noticing a pattern in the brews that win big!). Dark Side manages to be both robust and delicate: an absolute triumph from the incredible West Country outfit at Bath Ales and a stout that will have you turning away from the conventional and embracing, dare I say it, the Dark Side of brewing! 

Review: Guardsman

Name: Guardsman
Brewery: Windsor & Eton.
ABV: 4.2%
Style: Best Bitter
Season: Late Summer

Availability: Unknown outside the Windsor area.

I have lived in and around Windsor for a while now and as a place, there's very little not to like. I am a man who wants to support all things local but Guardsman by Windsor & Eton Brewey is something I cannot champion. From the pour, it is ruby and copper with the kind of body I usually find irrestable in a pint glass. However, the nose belies a bitterness that I simply cannot palate: the hops are far too dominant and destroy any sweetness or character the malt tries to bring. Boasting a "distinctive hop aroma" and a "tangy taste", I certainly must agree but it is not a pleasant one. I just couldn't taste past the slaughtering iron-tang even though the colour and aroma promised so much. It's not often that this happens but, after sipping as much as I could, the sink enjoyed the rest. A taste I can best do without.

Review: Theakstone's Old Peculier

Name: Theakstone's Old Peculier
Brewery: Theakstone, North Yorkshire.
ABV: 5.6%
Style: Dark ale

Availability: Widely available in most supermarkets.

Try if you like: Coffee, dark chocolate, rich, deep & sumptuous treacle flavours, stouts, porters.

A quintisentially British brew and well worthy of its fame: a true legend and a beer that continues to be complex and surprising after each drink. Old Peculier pours out a deep, rich ebony brown and foams up with a head like whipped deep-vanilla ice. This is a dark brew but maintains itself a lighter body than a stout or a porter thanks to the slight carbonation that lifts the whole profile and the fresh bitterness from the equally legendary fuggles hops. The epitome of bittersweet, at the front it is fresh and roasted with the sweetness coming somewhere in the middle, not far off burnt caramel or dark maple or treacle. Towards the end, there lingers the more coffee-tinged notes and then the dip of bitterness to stop this brew from being sickly-sweet. It packs a real punch at 5.6% and you can taste that alcohol but it is managed extremely well through a balanced and smooth finish but, again, thanks to the slight fizz and fuggles, doesn't feel too syrupy. This really is a luxurious and surprisingly light brew for its colour and taste but somehow, I can never drink one quickly: be it the punch or to savour every drop, a pint lasts a bit longer than a quaffable amber ale. I adore this brew around late autumn and winter when fires crackly, fireworks pop and the days are so miserable that a pint in the cosy indoors is irrestable. When Theakstone crafted this, they crafted something that deserves to be preserved like Stonehenge or The Tower of London. If you've never had one, try one on Christmas Day, before the dinner; downwind of the pine needles: there's a resonance of rum-kissed raisin in this drink that will have you feeling merry in no time (and of course, the 5.6% will have nothing to do with it!).

Review: Hobgoblin

Name: Hobgoblin
Brewery: Wychwood, Oxfordshire
ABV: Cask: 4.5% Bottle 5.2%
Style: Ruby Ale
Season: Autumn/Winter

Availability: Widely available in most supermarkets

Traditionally crafted and legendary: this is how the beer describes itself. Regardless of the self-promotion, there's no denying the justified popularity of this one. Another heavily reliable pint, the flavour profile of Hobgoblin means you always go back for more. From the bottle, it packs a punch at 5.2% which is more than enough to warm your cockles on a winter's eve. From the pour, you are immediately struck with the dark, chestnut colour of the brew which yields a frothy, butterscotch coloured head. To taste, it is a delightful mix of bittersweet chocolate hoppiness: lingering coffee tinged notes with a malty dominance that could remind you of a stout. The fantastic thing about Hobgoblin is that it has a good level of carbonation to lift this to being mildly refreshing, which seems odd considering the chocolate malts kicking around. Again, this is another great reliable beer that never disappoints and for me, carries the essence of that descent into cold, slow Autumn. When served cold, the coffee flavour sits more in the background, as does the sweetness but as things warm up, the full body of mocha-esque morishness comes to dominate. A real corker of a pint and a beer that has been a firm favourite and nowhere near as heavy as you think it would be. A perfect draw for when the days get short and living rooms get cosy.