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.

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Boltmaker - Timothy Taylor

Name: Boltmaker.
Brewery: Timothy Taylor.
ABV: 4.2% (bottle).
Style: Bitter.
Season: Autumn/Winter

Availability: Available in most good supermarkets.

What I paid: £1.79 (Waitrose).

Try if you like: Traditional bitters, Spitfire by Shepherd Neame, malt and rather bitter hops.

Combing through the Camra champion beer lists turned me toward this Yorkshire brew from the very well established Timothy Taylor brewery, creators of the legendary Landlord.

Boltmaker has won the Supreme Champion Beer award from Camra (2014) and comes very high up in many of the 'Best British Beet' lists to be found online. It has a depth of flavour that makes it very robust and there is nothing gentle about this drop: malty to a point at the start but a strong bitter body that unfortunately for me finishes with a very rough finale - an almost acrid flavour that just doesn't sit well with me but I do prefer things on the sweeter edge as familiar readers may be aware of. If you enjoy a good, no nonsense traditional bitter, I don't think you'll find a better example than this. Certainly not a session beer due to its rather gassy nature and heavy body.

In colour and taste, it reminded me of Spitfire by Kent's Shepherd Neame brewery: coppery, malty undertone with a hopped bitter final flourish. Not for me and I don't think I'll ever drink one again but each to their own as they say. 

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!

Hitachino Nest White Ale

I Name: Hitachino Nest White Ale

Brewery: Kiuchi Brewery, Japan.

ABV: 5.5%

Style: Wheat beer

Season: Summer!

Availability: Unknown - currently stocked in M&S, Waitrose & served in Wagamama restaurants.

Price (I paid for it): £2.50 at Waitrose.

Try if you like: Blue Moon, Estrella Damm.

This is most definitely a sublime summer drop: I can't taste this little beauty without wanting to be basking in sunset, sat aside a glowing barbecue watching the night draw in. This 'White Ale' is a real treat from the land of the rising sun: it's aroma is reminiscent of a high quality European lager (German more than anything with its malty hop nose) and it is certainly enticingly familiar.

It pours out a golden straw colour with adelightfully  light fizz which betrays it's somewhat smooth mouthfeel but shows off its credentials as a wheat beer. However, I hate wheat beers: they tend to taste somewhere off the coastline of banana bread and thankfully this little brew doesn't even bedalie with that: it is very light for its heady 5.5% (I certainly felt it creeping up on me!) and the delivery is sweetness: honeyed oranges with a bitter-sweet finish ending with the floral happiness. The bottle boasts that it is made with orange peel and orange juice and that certainly makes its way through the sip and is what puts this beer perfectly in the hands of summer with an orange-citrus sweetness prevalent throughout the drinking. This pint really made me smile: it's delicious and if you can find one, just grab it - don't even think twice. The White Ale has bags of character and is a lighter way to appreciate delicately crafted ale. Before the doldrums of endless overcastes monopolise your days, savour a cold bottle of this wonderful drop on a hot summers day...or any day really: get stuck in!

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/

Hop House 13

Guinness have been bringing forth a new array of beverages of late (such as the West Indies and Dublin Porters) and the latest offering from the Irish Empire is a lager: Hop House 13. I love lagers as  any who have read this blog will know and I'm always keen to find one with flavour and balance to make it both the perfect summer-quaffer for those warmer evenings and a tasty beer that doesn't just achieve both being wet and cold. I have tried this in two forms: bottled and draught and there is a difference and these differences bring a delightful dimension - proving further how bottle and pump can vary.

As a bottle, this beer sails ever so close to the coastlines of American IPA's but fear not, it doesn't follow the current trend for being over-hopped and unpalatably bitter. There is a real tendency for many new nectars to follow in the American style and when I first opened a bottle of this golden brew, I feared the worst as I sipped before smelling: bitterness was at the front along with the almost mossy grassiness something like a Pale Ale would thrust forwards. However, the finish was malty and sweet. This hooked me back. The next sip I took came before the almost peachy-floral nose wafted into my foolish nostrils - a striking aroma the likes of which I haven't seen since Badger's Golden Glory. Served cold, this was a lager with a difference and one that nearly bailed me out but a malty surge at the end won me over.

In draught however, this is closer to a Czech Pilsner something akin to Pilsner Urquell in that the body is smoothly carbonated, the front is sweet and malty but the finish is bitter and lingering with a final smack of the field of richly toasted summer crop. I expected the peachy flowers but none of it came (no matter how hard I sniffed!) and it would seem that this quality is reserved for the bottle.

With either presentation, I really enjoyed this beer and what with the weather improving, I can see it becoming a staple at BBQ's and pub-garden catch-ups. A delicious drop and one that I urge you to try in any way that you can get it!

Try if you like: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Pilsner Urquell.