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.

Warming ales for Colder Times: Barnsey by Bath Ales.

Name: Barnsey.

Brewery: Bath Ales.

ABV: 4.5% (bottle).

Style: dark bitter.

Availability: Around the Bath/Bristol area, in supermarkets. Sainsburys seem to have a decent stock around the South East.

Try if you like: Doombar, Rebellion Red, Abbot Ale, bitter, sweet malts, Gem, dark ales, stouts, chocolate and coffee.

Ale goes in seasons. The palette seems to do the same. The air is turning crisp; the leaves are kissed with burned-orange and sunset yellow and so the time has come for the drop to do the same: turn darker and richer. I tried a citrus-hopped lager on Friday night and it felt as out of place as sleigh bells dangling betwixt the legs of the Eater Bunny. Trust me, I adore this particular lager and have raved about it many times but at this time of November, it felt flat. Too light. It's cold outside and the morning air smells of wooodsmoke: it's time for dark bitters, stouts and porters. Following that Friday, I had a bottle of Barnsey on Sunday and felt at one with nature: my beerological clock synchronised with the planet and all was well. 

Barnsey delivers depth of flavour and that is the Bath Ales guarantee it seems. You're going to get chocolate, hints of coffee, brown sugar and smokiness all interlacing a hoppy bitterness that never sours the scene but leaves the wave that crashes echoing with freshness. It's a gorgeous ruby chestnut on the pour and the nose is all smoked caramel and brûlée sugar. Festive flavours seem to unravel from the background to the fore as you sip and sip: at one point, I started to be reminded of a Speyside single malt I adore as a sherried-whisky note emanated forth. 

I've drunk this burnished beauty in the summer with a barbecue; it delivers great harmony with hickory smoke meats and in the latter seasons, it is perfect with those roasts and stews. My point here really is that although it does pack the flavours of Autumn and winter, please don't overlook it when the sun puts the effort in: it isn't heavy and carries its bold flavour with the deftness of a ballerina. This brewery cannot do a single thing wrong: the flavour they get into their bottles astounds me

every time I drink one of their brews. Please believe me when I say I do not in any way work for their marketing department: I just absolutely love their ales. Barnsey is hard to find down my way (Ascot) so whenever I chance upon a bottle, it's as if it were the last bottle of beer left on the planet. I cannot fathom how anyone who enjoys beer could ever fail to adore this. Never mind the bombardment of Christmas adverts, if you want to get in the mood for the jolly season, drink one of these: even Scrooge himself would be merry after a Barnsey.

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.

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.

Spending the evening with a robust Abbot: Abbot Ale

Name: Abbot Ale.
Brewery: Westgate Brewery (Greene King), Bury St.Edmunds.
ABV: 5% (bottle).
Style: Ale/Best Bitter.
Season: Autumn/Winter

Availability: Available in most good supermarkets.

What I paid: £1.99 (CO-OP).

Try if you like: Stronger ales, Moorland's legendary Old Speckled Hen, toffee and biscuity malt flavours, fruit cake (in character not actual flavour!).

Not a subtle beer by any means but such a rich offering from the brewery based in Bury St.Edmunds. Abbot Ale is a beer you will easily see in most supermarkets and indeed, it is often on pumps at pubs quite readily too: it even comes in cans! The one I most recently had the pleasure of trying was bottled and I have to say it was a real treat. 

To summarise in a single word: robust. This is a mouthful and a half this drop as it delivers, again and again, with toffeed malts and a rich spicy undertone throughout the whole sip: pale and amber malts lend it a colour like slightly burned golden syrup and in terms of aromatics, this beer smells like what I imagine people from outside the UK think a British Beer smells like: deep, rich and hoppy with an almost alcoholic heat to it (much like if you were nosing a golden rum).

I cannot impress upon you how rich the flavour is: it's the sticky toffee pudding of beers in that it is sweet and thick with cloying demerera but you are rescued from this becoming sickly by the hopping which encapsulates the malt with refreshing bitters which dance and interweave with those date-like flavours. It is, for its punch, remarkably refreshing for such a bold beer although at 5%, you couldn't session it unless you are made of sterner stuff than myself! 

If you have ever tried Old Speckled Hen, you should try this: it will seem both familiar and different - I dare say, Hen is slightly more subtle and lacks the smash of the Abbot. Subtle this isn't but subtle isn't what you always want: it delivers flavour...barrels of flavour.

Follow me on Twitter: @FullFlagon

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: Adnam's Broadside

Name: Broadside (Bottled Strong Best Bitter)
Brewery: Adnams, Southwold
ABV: 6.3%
Style: Strong Best Bitter
Season: Autumn/Winter

Availability: Available in most good supermarkets.

Try if you like: Strong ales, Thwaites Old Dan, Fullers Golden Pride, golden & dark rum.

The coming of December and the festive time really does call for a drop of this mighty Frigate of an ale: with a wonderfully punchy strength of 6.3%, Broadside delivers a punch of both alcohol and flavour. It is a sip perfect for this time of year with its wonderful blend of chocolate malts and fresh Pale Ale malts to create a fruity, rich and full bodied bomber of a beer. You could easily be fooled into thinking Christmas Puddings have been spiked with this stuff for centuries as cascades of presevered fruit-cake notes and treacly plumbs are followed up by the hint of bitterness in every mouthful. It finishes Demerara-sweet and with a real rush to the head from the punchy ABV (hence the Broadside choice, perhaps!). This is an absolute beauty of a strong, comforting bear-hug of a ruby beer. With a bottle of this around, who needs chestnuts on an open fire? Open fire with a Broadside! 

http://adnams.co.uk/beer/our-beers/adnams-broadside/

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!

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: 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.