Extra Stout (Sam Smith's)

While I was out at Richmond I also got into a bit of Sam Smith's Extra Stout (4.5% abv). SS Extra Stout is served from nitro-keg and is very similar to Guinness. I would go as far to say that it is an excellent clone, although it does have marginally more flavour and has a nice coffee tang that modern Guinness tends to lack (although it did ten years ago?). The beer was ok, but in general I despise nitro-kegs. There is something slightly dissatisfying about having a beer with a head the consistancy of shaving cream! Also generally as a rule: Nitro-kegs tend to be cellered alongside the lager collection and as such come from the tap at about 2 degrees! Who wants icy cold stout? Not me...

Alpine Lager (Sam Smith's)

Alpine Lager (4.5% abv) is one of the many lagers produced by Sam Smiths of Tadcaster, Yorkshire. I was fortunate enough to be enjoying the sunshine last Sunday and popped into a little pub near the Thames in Richmond called “The Rose of York”, which is a cosy former coach-house now owned and operated by the brewery. I have to admit that I am not a huge fan of Smith’s beers as they tend to give me a hangover and you can usually only get Old Brewery Bitter on draught (and it was nitro-pour in the ‘Rose’). For those that are not in the know, Sam Smith’s are a completely organic operation and all the products that they sell come from the brewery or its subsidiaries’. Yes, so this includes soft drinks, spirits, wine as well as the beers. The only advantage from the consumer’s point of view is that the beer is usually very cheap (and hence Smith’s pubs are very popular). I actually do not mind the alpine lager although it is a little generic and flavourless, but at least it isn’t complete shite.

Erdinger Weissbier 2

Yep my wife surprised me with not only Bergenbier, but also Erdinger Weiss from Germany. Again I won’t go into to much detail again, but merely document the consumption for my own benefit! In case you ask, they do have a snazzy website: http://www.erdinger.com/
You can read my previous ramblings here.

Bergenbier 2

Ok, I wont go into this one again. It was another Tesco pickup by my wife. The Romanian Lager has not really changed much since last time. Oh, I did find their website:http://www.bergenbier.ro/

Finchley Bitter

Finchley Bitter (abv unknown) is a unique Yorkshire style bitter brewed by a new microbrewery located in East Finchley. The brewery itself is still in the development stages and I was fortunate enough to try a pilot brew. Being a pilot brew the brewer has chosen to use malt extract to provide the fermentables rather than the traditional mashing method used by most larger scale commercial breweries. The beer itself is fresh, with a firm bitterness and a slight extract twang but is an excellent entry level selection and should become a promising beer when the pilot phase is over and large scale production begins. Hopefully as this new venture evolves I will be able to bring you breaking news about this exciting new micro! The picture below shows the pilot cask located at the back of the brewery premises!

Staropramen

Staropramen Premium Lager (5% abv) is a traditional Czech pilsner brewed by Pivovary Staropramen, Prague. It is an extremely dry example of the pilsner style and the brand is now owned by the Interbrew conglomerate (InBev). Due to the takeover, Staropramen is available worldwide and I was fortunate enough to enjoy this pint at 'The Old Parr's Head', W14 (which depending on how they keep the beer is on occation my local!) The pub has a Thai restaurant and I felt that the pilsner would be a better match for the Thai food than London Pride (which is their usual house ale). I won't waffle on too much about the food and beer and I will let you explore the Staropramen world via the web: http://www.staropramen.com/

Just as a sidenote!
Fellow beer blogger 'Stonch' has an interesting account of the brewery, which you can read about here.

Newcastle Brown Ale

Newcastle Brown Ale (4.7% abv), commonly known as 'Newkie Brown' is well a brown ale! This one again is a Tesco pick up! Which is the story of my life these days with my hectic schedule keeping me away from the pub, well many pubs! A quick glance around the web reveals yet another outstanding website: http://www.newcastlebrown.com/ with enough content to satisfy even the most tech-savy beer geek. A brief commercial description of the beer;

Available filtered and pasteurised in keg and bottle. Newcastle Brown Ale was first brewed in 1927 in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, by JimPorter after three years of development. Production moved from Newcastle to Gateshead at the end of 2004.

My example was the bottled variety. The beer itself is rich and malty with little hope character and a subtle roast aftertaste. Over all a very satisfying beer!
Historically the beer has been brewed in batches and a fresh portion of the beer is mixed with an aged portion of the beer at bottling to give its unique flavour. This practice ended however, as production has moved with the times to provide a cost effective production. The beer may be a shadow of its former self, but there are no complaints from me.

Old Speckled Hen

A quick pickup from the local Tesco (I am going to need a new beer source soon!), Old Speckled Hen (5.2% abv) is another Ale from the Greene King empire. Unlike most beers from Greene King this beer actually has some taste! The beer is a deep amber colour with good bitterness and hop character. A really good pint that I wouldnt mind finding on cask somewhere as described here. http://www.oldspeckledhen.co.uk/
I was in a bit of a hurry to quench my thirst, so please excuse the empty bottle in the photo. I found some more info about the beer in the Oxford Bottled Beer Database, which I have reproduced below.

This is the flagship beer of the Oxfordshire brewery, named afterthe vintage MG car rather than the popular farmyard animal. The beer is a rich reddish golden-brown colour with a solid, bubbly head, but very little aroma (perhaps a hint of malt). It is remarkably smooth on the palate, with a fairly heavily hopped bitter flavour and a strong element of maltiness. The finish is long and bitter. Altogether, this makes a beautifully balanced, session beer (a little on the strong side for a long session, perhaps), comparing quite favourably to the draught version.

Welsh Pale Ale

Welsh Pale Ale is a 3.7% abv pale ale from the Breconshire Brewery. What was initially a promising looking pint ended up failing to satisfy me. The beer itself is a pale blonde colour similar to most generic pale lagers, and the carbonation is what you would expect from an ale. The problem lies with the taste, or lack of taste! Besides an initial dry malty taste up front the beer tends to have no hop character or bitterness at all and basically felt like drinking a warm Corona.

The beer maintains a spot on the brewery website here: http://www.breconshirebrewery.com/Ales.asp?BeerID=24 and has the following to say.

A pale golden, mildly hopped session ale. This beer has been developed in response to requests for an easy to drink session ale, that was not too bitter, but still retained a full and satisfying flavour. We hope hope you'll agree that the Brewer has met these criteria!

For some reason I agree with this description, but they are using the word mildly a little bit generously. Still there is something wrong and therefore I disagree with what the brewer has created. Why would anybody (excluding teens who drink Smirnoff Ice and WKD) want to drink something that has no taste and no bitterness? Those folk in Wales sure are an interesting bunch.....

Guinness 3

Yeah I know, I am drinking to much Guinness! My wife bought me a 4 pack as a gift from a Tesco local whilst picking up some bread and milk. The can is an excellent long club like shape for wife-beating if you so desire and it also has a cool wavy effect around the top of the can! The beer was tasty, and I am pleased to note that it is now brewed in Dublin! I will have some hand pumped Guinness this year!

Deuchars IPA

Deuchars IPA is a fabulous beer. A brilliant blend of malt and hopcharacter and above all a drink with enormous drinkability.

Roger Protz, Editor of the Good Beer Guide.

A quick cheeky lunchtime pint last Friday at "Ye Olde Mitre" resulted in a pint of Deuchars IPA (4.4% abv) a Scottish IPA which is rather tasty. Again not a proper super bitter, over hopped IPA, but a good hoppy bitter; the IPA is definetely a good compromise which suits the cheeky lunchtime pint, or can form the backbone of a much larger session. The most remarkable thing about this beer is the pub I was drinking in. A real olde worlde gem the pub dates back to 1546 and serves a selection of good real ales, some cheap and nasty lagers and Guinness, plus a tasty selection of traditional bar snacks. This is definetely a pub to check out: http://fancyapint.com/pubs/pub92.html

Carlsberg Export

I have been pretty busy lately and have not had time to pay "The Beer Diary" the attention it deserves. I have however, been drinking plenty of beer! I enjoyed this pint of Carlsberg Export (~5.2% abv) at my local curry house "The Raj of India" when faced with the choice of Cobra, Kingfisher and Carlsberg Export. Having already had the other two on a previous curry mission my mind was made up. Carlsberg Export is what I would call a standard lager. There is nothing special about it, but then there is nothing particulary bad about it either. But I will add that it soothed the fire from my extra hot Jalfrezzi and that is what counts! Carlsberg is intersting as it is where the accepted standard "lager" or bottom fermenting ale yeast strain was first isolated from. The strain is known as Saccharomyces carlsbergensis. Interesting heh?

Well's Eagle IPA

Well's Eagle IPA (cask 3.6% abv) is another ordinary bitter marketed incorrectly as an IPA to create interest in the beer. The beer itself is nothing extrodinary, but is a decent pint none the less. I enjoyed this one during a Sunday lunch at "The Roebuck" a gastropub in Chiswick, W4 and it complimented the pork roast I was eating nicely!

From the website which i have linked to below, I get the impression that Eagle IPA is a brand as much as an individual beer as you can get the beer in bottle, can, cask or nitrokeg and each of these offers a different abv (ie the can has an abv of 5% and the cask is 3.6%).

Anyhow this is a beer that you should check out if you see it on cask at the pub, but I wouldnt make any special effort to search it out.

Website:http://www.eaglebitter.co.uk/

Rocio Trigo

Another beer from the Gaucho Grill (Brewed under licence by the Greenwich Meantime brewery), Rocio Trigo is a Bavarian style wheat beer. This is the second wheat beer I have had this year and so I cannot really draw any similarities between this beer and Erdinger Weiss, but they are both interpretations of the same style. Trigo is a milder beer which is bordering on tasteless without the signature banana or clove notes associated with the style. The beer does not even have a spritzy level of carbonation and really isn't to style. It is more in line with the American wheatbeers that are popping up on the 'craft beer' scene. Anyway the point is: if you are going to Gaucho for a steak, get the Rocio Gold!

Here is an excerpt from the drinks menu at Gaucho and how they describe the beer.

ROCIO TRIGO
From the Spanish word for wheat, this
Bavarian style wheat beer made from a
unique strain of yeast to give a cloudy
orange – colour, zesty flavours of banana
and bubblegum spice with a refreshing,
malty finish.

Rocio Gold

Ok, my first Kölsch of the year! Rocio Gold (4.3% abv) is a Kölsch style beer brewed for the Gacho Grill chain of restaurants in the UK. Kölsch is an unusual beer style from Cologne, Germany in that it has noticable bitterness and is straw in colour like a Pilsener but is actually top fermented and is therefore an Ale. A quick search around the web has many people identifying this beer as a lager but it is actually an Ale. The Rocio example is particularly true to style and is a refreshing beer with a fresh crisp bitter taste with a slight fruitiness. The beer is not strictly a Kölsch as it has not been brewed within view of the Dom Cathedral in Cologne, but actually brewed under licence by the Greenwich Meantime Brewery. A nice beer to have next time you feel like heading to Gaucho for a steak!

Adnam's Broadside

Adnam's Broadside (4.7% abv) is a special bitter along the same lines as Shepherd Neame Bishops Finger. It has a deep amber colour with a strong bitterness with little to no hop aroma. The lack of fruitiness also tends to leave an almond like taste in the beer. It is quite unusual! I'll leave the tasting notes there before I start to sound like a ticker! Adnams have been brewing beer since 1857 and cater specifically for the non-themed pub market. I enjoyed this pint at the lovely "Ye Olde Mitre" a historical pub near work that dates back to 1556! Broadside is also an interesting beer as the cask variation is a special bitter where the bottled version is a potent extra special bitter ranging from 6.5-7.2% depending on year. All in all, its ok!

Bishop's Finger

This pint of Shepherd Neame Bishop's Finger was also enjoyed whilst camped out at The Bloomsbury. Bishops finger is Shepherd Neame's Extra Special Bitter and weighs in at a generous 5% abv. The flavour differs significantly from Spitfire with a more pronounced bitterness and roast character rather than the up front hoppiness of the Spitfire. The beer is also a lot heavier in the stomach and after two pints I swiftly swictched back to Spitfire. All in all Bishop's Finger is a good beer on the odd occation, but a little to heavy for a session ale. You can read more about it at the Shepherd Neame website here.

Spitfire

Shepherd Neame Spitfire (4.5% abv) is a special bitter with an excellent fresh hoppy taste. this particular pint was enjoyed at "The Bloomsbury" a Shepherd Neame tied house on New Oxford St in Bloomsbury. Originally launched as a seasonal ale, Spitfire proved so popular that it was added permenently to Shepherd Neame's regular lineup. Along with the beer came several rather humerous advertising posters which are retrospective in style (to WWII era) and contain many puns which are deliberately offensive to Germans! I like Spitfire as it is a great session beer.

Marstons Pedigree

Ok, Ok, I may have sunk to new lows! This beer was terrible, and I knew it would be before I ordered this pint and the only saving grace was that it was included with the Curry I bought with it!
Where: is the Shakespeares Head (JD Weatherspoons tied house) on the Kingsway near Holborn tube station. What: Curry Club on Thursday nights and; Why: is because we (Rich and I) were damn hungry and needed a cheap feed before finding a nice pub to have a few “good” pints. Pedigree (4.5% abv) is a special bitter from Burton on Trent and beers from this region especially the IPA’s are awesome beers due to the water conditions. This is due to the hardness of the water in the area which allows really bitter beer to taste really good. For some reason, Pedigree is a good beer close to home – or so I hear, but for some reason it does not seem to travel well, especially to London and especially to JD Weatherspoons tied houses. Let me say that I finished the beer, and let me say next time I go to curry club I will probably have a Fosters! BTW I have had Pedigree in a bottle and it is ok, its just the casks that do not seem to travel.
Here is some independent stuff I found on the web about Marstons Pedigree;

Marston's have recently completed a £1M expansion at their brewery in Burton - this means that more of their beer can be brewed in the now famous Burton Union Sets. The hard Burton water helps to make this fine bitter world famous. Pedigree is a pleasing session pint. The primary aroma is of the Maris Otter malt, with a characteristic sulphurous, eggy hint, though this is less noticeable than in the draught version. The Fuggles and Goldings hops push through powerfully in the flavour and last well into the finish. The flavour is not overpowering, however, and is tempered by a hint of syrupy sweetness, lending a richness to the brew. This is a good session bottle, but make sure you try the draught version too.

Pilsner Urquell

The last beer from my recent trip to Barcelona, Spain was Pilsner Urquell. Urquell is the original pilsner and the first pale lager to exist. It simply is the defining beer for the Pilsner beer style and the most imitated beer on the planet – Period. The unfortunate part of this particular pint (ok, few pints :P) was the pretentious café/beer restaurant it was served in. The name of the place slips my mind at the moment, but the service sucked and the décor had been set out to make it a pseudo brewpub with industrial brewery type pipes and copper etc. The beer was excellent though and in interest of having another few thousand pints over the future I will leave it there. The website is pretty impressive as well. You can check it out here: http://www.pilsner-urquell.com

San Miguel

Again another Barcelona beer! I did try and get through a few…
San Miguel is the Spanish mega swill and is often sold on the international market as a premium beer. The beer is ok, if not a little unremarkable and as a lot of lagers tend to be: Very Bland!
This one did the trick though and got me a little bit more lubricated so I could get stuck into things a bit more why eating my Paela!
I haven’t really got a lot to say about this one – it doesn’t even have an offensive name! Anyhow what kind of trip to Spain would it have been if I didn't sample this beer (even though it is Spains answer to Carling and Fosters).

Mahou Clasica

Again another obscure Spanish beer from the red light district!
Mahou Clasica (5.4% abv) is a Spanish lager that was pretty bland and I haven’t been able to find much in the way of information about the beer. I think the packaging and lack of appeal in the details fo the can are what stands out most about the beer! It has a low resolution printed label that really doesn’t do much to sell the beer.
The beer itself is a pretty bland euro lager and is certainly nothing special and I probably will never drink it again. That being said there s some cool advertising stuff about for the beer. The official English website is here: http://www.mahou-usa.com/ and as per usual for these Spanish beers asks for your age before letting you enter. It then gives a brief history of the beer, which actually reflects the brand more than the beer! I also found this very funny video which is an actual ad for the beer!

Moritz

Ok, again this is from my Barcelona jaunt and again I bought it from the Spar Express in the red light district! I bought this beer expecting it to be a pretty ordinary beer, just a lawnmower like all the other mass produced swill that you get, well pretty much everywhere these days but I was pleasantly mistaken.
The beer: Moritz (5.4% abv) is an exceptional lager. The bottle claims that it is a locally brewed lager and is Barcelona’s favourite. It is extremely malty with a mild bitterness and a good hit of hop aroma as it’s going down. There is a reasonable amount of diacetyl as well which really suits this style of beer well. My only concern was that I didn’t buy more than one bottle! The beer has a Spanish website: http://www.moritz.es/ so I can’t really tell you much about that. This beer is good, even better than the Estrella Damm and will be my pick next time I’m in the Catalan capital.

Estrella Damm

Another fine Spanish beer from my recent trip to Barcelona, and again from the Catalan Damm Brewery comes Estrella Damm (4.6% abv). I really enjoyed this beer whilst sitting in the sun eating a magnificent tapas meal. I hadn’t even heard of this beer which I would describe as a light bodied, full flavoured pilsner but I was thoroughly impressed, and the beer is an official sponsor of various sailing races! Bonus. Once again as with Bock Damm Negro Munich, the beer has its own iconic website. This one provides a timeline which claims the beer has survived for three centuries? You can have a look at the website here. I recommend people to look up and give this beer a try; it’s a great summer lager.