Duchy Originals Organic Ale

A unusually warm mid Autumn day saw myself and my wife out for a stroll and some lunch along the Thames path between Hammersmith and Putney. Intending to grab some lunch we decided to pull into "The Crabtree" which is basically a gastro pub which prides itself upon calling itself, a "bar and fine dining hall". Any pub that goes into the 'above' gastro game should be offering 'above' pub level meals and 'above' pub level service. Upon going to the bar to order some potato wedges and a nachos (hardly fine dining), I was told there would be at least an hour wait on food. Now this is a pub that is trying to pass itself off as a restaurant. How would a restaurant go if it told its diners that they had to wait at least an hour for basic food? Its inexcusable - and lack of available staff or its unexpectedly busy is not an excuse. To all gastro Owners out there that suffer from this "PULL YOUR SOCKS UP". Anyhow, I managed to order a beer and a glass of wine for the Mrs.

Duchy Originals Organic Ale is an interesting beer to say the least. The beer itself is nice, an amber ale/ESB that gets the style right and ticks all the boxes, no complaints there. What is interesting is the source of organic ingredients.

A bit of background on Duchy's Originals:

Duchy Originals was started in 1990 to market the produce of the Prince of Wales all-organic farm at Highgrove. The concept of the farm was to prove (or not) the commercial viability of organic farming and if successful, to encourage others to follow suit. As if proving the profitability of organic foods were not enough, as if employing 100’s of people directly and indirectly as well as seasonal workers were not enough, the company also gives away all it’s profits to charity (the Prince of Wales charity incidentally). To date, this sum comes to millions from the 70+ products in their range. This ale is the first alcohol based product they have produced. To show how deeply the Prince and his achievements are embraced by the Organic community, the Soil association has made him their patron. Moving stuff indeed, I wondered if he offsets/deducts his donations to charity against his genuinely profit generating interests, but that's besides the point!

So the malt used in brewing comes from HRH's property, but who brews it? Prior to the brewing of this organic ale, the organic barley from Prince Charles' estate was used to make Wychwood Circle Master. This was brewed by on contract Brakspear's of Henley until they closed in Autumn 2002. After the acquisition of Brakspear's by Wychwood, and the emergence of the Duchy originals brand, HRH decided to commission Wychwood to brew Duchy Originals Organic Ale and the results in the beer you are reading about today. My only beef has more to do with the Crabtree than the beer itself. My pint was served in a plastic pint glass rather than a proper glass one. Sure the crabtree has a large beer garden, but it was hardly busy and it was even less likely to get broken. I hate drinking out of plastic and basically its unacceptable - once again the Crabtree need to get their act together. Anyway I am starting to rant. The bottom line HRH's beer is as good as his ears are big, and the Crabtree is as good as a fart in an elevator.

Linky

Zagorka Special

Zagorka Special (5.0% abv) is the last of my Morrison's beers, and was a welcome beer after the intensity of the Bakalar! Hailing from the Zagorka Brewery, located in Bulgaria this beer is actually owned by Heineken. Zagorka is currently on the winning side of the Bulgarian megaswill divide, a market it currently shares with Kamenitza. Zagorka is the leading national premium beer brand in Bulgaria. Apparently its the beer all Bulgarians are proud of.

Compared to other east of Central European beers, Zagorka is a full body, mildly-hoppy and richly-flavored lager which is surprising. I was expecting a cheap and nasty cooking lager!

Definitely one to check out if you like your Pilsner style beers, a pleasant surprise.

Bakalar Czech Pilsner

From my recent sojourn to Morrison's, Bakalar Pilsner (5.0% abv) by Cisarsky Pivovar was an interesting find. The brewery sources it's water from two artisan wells underneath the brewery. Besides this bit of trivia, I can't find out much more about the brewery!

My opinions on the pale fizz? This beer is very fragrant and soapy. Its like someone has tipped a whole lot of saaz flavoured hand soap into the beer! But its not too bad. Slightly sweeter than your typical Pilsner the beer is certainly one of the better bottled beers I have had lately, well certainly better than Marston's anyway!

Marston's Oyster Stout

I did a quick trip to Morrison's to get some milk last week and ended up buying a few beers while I was there. I think I will start sourcing my bottled beer there as they have a pretty decent selection, although I don't tend to drink at home that often. (BTW - I regularly drink in pubs rather than at home. I usually just have whatever cask bitter is on but, I only post about the session beers that I have not had before otherwise this blog would get a bit repetitive!)

Anyhow Marston's Oyster Stout (4.5% abv) is an unusual beer. Its rather sour for a stout and has a sharp acidity and a relatively thin body. Not quite what I was expecting. Contrary to the beers name, there are no Oyster's present in this stout and the name mearly refers to the golden age of porters in London when a Porter and some oysters were considered as good hearty food.

Fast Facts
- Best bottled Stout 1998 Brewing Industry International Gold Medal Winner
- Champion Bottled Beer as voted by CAMRA

I have yet to be impressed with any beers from Marston's. They always seem to get good write ups but fail to deliver when I taste them. I challenge someone from Marston's to prove me wrong and send me bottles to help change my mind. Website

Sagres

Sagres (5% abv) seems to be the beer of choice for most on the Algarve. Its bland, tastless and everywhere! Its the local megaswill and is to the Algarve, what Carling is to the UK and what XXXX is to Queensland. I won't carry on too much about theh beer as I think you get the picture!

This also bring along the end of the Algarve, special on the beers of Portugal. From here hopefully things will be looking up!

Tagus

Tagus (5.4% abv) is probably Portugal's only all malt beer! Fortunately for me, I happened to find plenty of it on my holiday and made it my regular session beer. The beer pours a very nice gold/amber with a good white head. It smells ok: clean, caramelly malt, fruity and nice perky fresh hop zest. On the palate it is fresh and hoppy, with a real bittering bite in the finish and obviously well-hopped character. Similar to Beck's, but upp-ing the level once again to make it somewhat 'offensive' to the great unwashed. Quite a full, powerful beer, that elevates it above the easy drinking, and a really very good strong lager style beer. Tick Tick!

Super Bock Stout

A while ago, (ok a long whole ago) I found some Super Bock, a high gravity corn laden lager which is one step below tramp juice. Low and behold the stuff is rampant throughout the Algarve and my mission was to avoid it at all costs! (something which I failed to do...). Rather than bore you with tales about a beer which makes Carling seem like a complex and interesting beer, I am going to talk about Super Bock Stout (4.8% abv), the 'dark side' . Contrary to the regular Super Bock, the stout version is actually half decent. The beer is chocolate roasty and robust, but has a little residual caramel sweetness which works rather well. As far as stouts go, it's more interesting than any of the usual Irish mega-swills as it has a dominant chocolate flavour whilst still being stout. Ok, not strictly to style but still a very nice beer. I suspect that the beer is actually brewed with a lager yeast - so its like a roasty Schwartzbier if you get my drift.

Overall an interesting beer: Website

Wentworth Rampant Gryphon

Wentworth Rampant Gryphon (6.2% abv) is a beast of a pale ale. I had mine in the form of Real Ale in a Bottle (RAIB) which was sourced from the Real Ale shop. Now as I said, this is a beast of a beer, its sweet, it has caramel flavours, its bitter its fruity it has just about every taste imaginable in a beer, but it does so and still remains pleasant.This beer is very home brew like, and has some of the esters that you get when you ferment too warm - but in a beer with so much going on you tend to just roll them up with everything else. I enjoyed this beer, but its the sort of pint that you can only have one or two off, its too complicated. It was also cloudy, and murky - probably the cloudiest commercial beer I have come across (including Coopers where the bar maid has swirled and tipped in the dregs). It also had a solid yeast cake at the bottom, so I think the haze maybe protein related rather than yeast in suspension?

The Rampant Gryphon is brewed by the Wentworth Brewery, who are an independent brewery located on the Wentworth Estate in Rotherham. http://wentworthbrewery.co.uk/

Tagus Dark

Tagus Dark (4.8% abv) is an all malt Bock style lager by Mare Nostrum Brasseur du Sud. The beer is dark with strong malty melanoiden flavours throughout and was probably the best beer I had whilst on holiday. Strangely enough, I can't find very much information about the beer. Help me fill in the blanks!

Cristal Pilsener

My first beer upon arriving in Portugal was Cristal Pilsner (5.1% abv). The beer is dry, but a Pilsner it ain't! It's pretty terrible and reminded me of Super Bock which I have had from Tesco's. I don't think I am going to find anything really decent in Portugal, but at least its warm!

Lučan

Its holiday season here in the UK and in my ventures to get some late sun action, I jetted off to The Algarve, Portugal. Whilst in the departure lounge at Gatwick I stumbled across Lučan (4.3% abv) an award winning Czech pilsner. This beer is really, really good even though it has been pasteurized. The beer is so good in fact that it was awarded "Best Beer" of the Czech Republic at the the Budweis beer competition in 2005.

The beer is deep amber in colour, maybe slightly darker than Budvar or Urquell and is not quite as bitter, but has a unique smokiness which goes well. The biggest problem is that it is only available at Weatherspoons pubs, so unless you like poor service and socialising with the great unwashed socially inept, pee smelling members of society its going to be a tough beer to drink!

Also as a surprise, my flight was actually early so I had to leave to get to the gate shortly after starting my pint. Never fear! I necked it pronto before joining the mad scramble to actually get a seat next to my wife on our EasyJet flight. Don't get me started on them!

Carling

Ok, I know, I should know better. I bet your all sitting down saying Carling, WTF! The scene of the crime was The Old Parr's Head and I was sneaking a quick one in after work while waiting for the Mrs to finish getting her hair done. I mentioned to the Irish guy behind the bar that one of the reviews on beerintheevening.com about the pub states that it does a top notch pint of Carling (4.1% abv). The barman saw this as a challenge and quickly poured me a pint so I could form my own opinion. Upon first sip, I knew that the beer was crap but I still smiled and fed the guys ego.. (the things I do for a free beer)

For those of you who are unaware, Carling is the biggest selling mega swill in the UK and is probably one of the nastiest tasting. You can even smell the corn they use to brew it with. One other point I would like to address is that some home brewers seem to think that Carling Black Label is the best beer ever produced - but then the guys from the US think that about Sam Smith's beers so it does not surprise me!

http://www.carling.com/

Gunn Wit

Just a quick one to say thats to Dr Gunn for providing me with a bottle of his craftbrewed wheat! The beer was either a wit or a hefeweissen (I'm not sure, it has elements of both styles), and was clean drinking with a nice tart finish. My only criticism was that it lacked the anticipated intense carbonation, but then that didn't diminish from the beer.

Well done, and thanks!

Sharp's Single Brew Reserve 2007

"Sharp's Head Brewer Stuart Howe personally brewed just one batch of this very special beer in December 2007. The beer was conditioned in the Brewery for over a month and then bottled with live yeast. The live yeast gently conditions the beer over time giving it a very balanced and complex flavour profile. "

This is the description provided by Sharp's for their annual Single Brew Reserve (4.5% abv), which is a red, sweet and lightly bitttered bottle conditioned ale. I can see what the brewer was going for with this beer, but somewhere along the line something has gone wrong! The beer is plain at best, and tastes like Doom Bar does if you drink it too cold. The flavours seem to disappear and you end up with something that tastes plain, clean and along the lines of canned megaswill bitter like John Smiths. I seem to be very negative today! But then again I don't appreciate lacklustre beers, especially from a brewery that produces gems such as Doom Bar and Atlantic IPA. For something that is considered a specialty beer, which has been bottle conditioned to increase complexity - this beer just doesnt live up to its name. Website

Cwrw Mel - Honey Fayre

I must apologise for the lack of posting lately. I have been on holidays and have been too lazy to post! Things are not likely to get better over the next three weeks as I head off to germany for Oktoberfest and Stuttgart for Volksfest, followed by a week in Brighton on work related activities.

Anyhow, this post is in regard to Cwrw Mel, 4.5% abv (or Honey Fayre in English), a braggot produced by the Conwy Brewry in North Wales. For those of you who are long term readers, you will probably be aware that I am a firm believer that honey and beer do not mix, and my beliefs are reinforced by this beer. The beer is insanely dry, its so dry I felt like i needed a glass of water after each sip. I also could not detect any honey flavour, it ferments right out and leaves the beer tasting bland exept for a weak malt taste and a poor level of bittering.

All in all, a very uninspiring beer! I'll stop now before I get too negative!

http://www.conwybrewery.co.uk/

Sharp's Atlantic IPA

Recently I was dragged along to Vinopolis by SWMBO as well, she wanted to go, and I felt obliged as I drag her to all manner of "old man pubs". For those who have never been, as you leave, you have to walk through a big majestic wine warehouse, which retails the wines you can sample in the exhibition. Anyhow, I got mine back when I picked up a bottle of Sharp's IPA (4.8% abv). The immediate concern regarding this beer is the clear glass bottle, surely a heavily hopped IPA is more susceptible to skunking than a regular bitter. Anyhow, with my bottle upon tasting this was not the case.

The beer is very flavorsome, with tropical and citrus like hop aroma with initial malt followed by a gentle, firm but in no way astringent bitterness. I even made SWMBO have a taste and expecting the usual "ahh, it tastes like beer", I got the pleasant reply of "I think I could actually drink that", a response that is usually reserved for tasteless beer such as Corona.

Overall, I am highly impressed with this beer. Its not for the faint as it is highly perfumed, however it is a flavorsome IPA, which is not too strong in alcohol (lower limit if the style), but is still a capable session beer. Top stuff, I just need to track it down in cask form now. Website here.

Timothy Taylor Landlord Ale 3

Ok, I'm not going to talk about TTLA again as I have commented on it a couple of times in the past, however it is worth noting that I had the pint's in The Sir Christopher Hatton (SCH). The SCH is a new refurbishment of the Old Goose on Leather Lane by pubco Nicholson's. The pub is certainly more upmarket that The Goose was, but it still suffers from the numbers on the table syndrome which plagues all chain bars ('spoons, O'Neills, All Bar One etc). The most interesting finding I had was they had a total of 12 real ales on their beer menu, but they only had 8 pumps!

Even still 8 different real ales is a pretty good number. My only concern is that the crowd was predominately drinking lager and wine, with only a handful or very small percentage of punters getting into the ales. I question whether or not they will be able to continue offering such a selection, but in asking this I am not going to comment on their turnover!

Anyhow the pint I had was in excellent condition and I'll probably head back there if it is deemed the venue to attend by my colleagues for Friday evening drinks. Well, its better than the king of diamonds anyhow!

Brakspears Bitter

Last Friday it was raining and miserable and the guys from the office wanted to sneak a quick pint into our lunch hour. Normally we would head to The Mitre or The Clock Tower, but a couple of the guys wanted to go slightly further afield (a whole block further) and check out The Gunmakers.

I quickly obliged and opted for a pint of Brakspears bitter (3.4%), which Jeff (the manager) had put on the night before. The beer is fresh and earthy tasting with a hint of sulpher on the nose(fuggles hops?) and is really the ideal session bitter or lunchtime quaffer. In fact, in contrast to my normal Friday afternoon I was super productive!

The Brakspear Brewery produced fine ales from 1711 till 2002. The Wychwood Brewery bought the brand and moved production to Oxfordshire where they continue to brew the beers with the traditional double drop method which distinguishes the Brakspears beers from many others.

Coors Light

I'll keep this one short and sweet. My mate is heading back to Australia and had a farewell party. he bought a slab of Coors Light (4.2% abv). He should have bought a crate of water!

The Coors "Silver Bullet" is pretty bland and boring, and its best served cold. Not to be a snob, but this beer is worse than even corona. http://www.coorslight.co.uk/

Castle Lager

Keeping with the South African theme, I also managed to consume a bottle of Castle lager (5% abv). In contrast to Windhoek, Castle lager is a rather poor cousin. The beer tastes a bit like euro swill and self confesses to being brewed with maize. The beer even comes skunked to mimic your favourite green bottled beer. I got through this one whilst enjoying my Springbok loin..... I don't think this beer added to the experience. http://www.castlelager.co.za/

Windhoek Lager

Windhoek Lager (4% abv) is an all malt Pilsner which is available pretty much exclusively in Namibia and South Africa. I was lucky enough to track some down (ok, I stumbled upon it purely by accident) in a posh Sth African restaurant in Putney.

The beer is impressive and has a nice grassy hop character with a subtle honey like malt sweetness in it's character. It reminded me of Australian premium beers like James Boag Premium and Cascade Premium. Just the thing you need to quaff after shooting game or escaping a pursuing lion! Actually jokes aside, I enjoyed this with my entrée of Boerewors (Wild Boar Sausages). Windhoek is brewed by Namibia Breweries.

Timothy Taylors Landlord Bitter 2

After several pints of Summer Lightning at The Gunmakers, I returned to the Coach and Horses just down the street for a late one. Not much has changed and the beer is as good as ever. You can read about my last adventure there here.

While I was in The Gunmaker, the guy who runs show mentioned that he normally has TTLB as his house ale. I'll probably get back down there for a cheeky Friday lunch pint tomorrow!

BTW, has anybody been to the new pub in Leather Lane, the Sir Christopher Hatton? It used to be a Goose (read 'Spoons like), but has recently been refurbed. The sales girls have just run in all excited behind me and are about to 'Hit it up' - young male patrons, beware!.

Summer Lightning

It seems to be the beer of the moment, Summer Lightning (5% abv) from the Hop Back Brewery seems to have saturated all the pubs in Clerkenwell of late. I have enjoyed a pint at The Mitre (with sparkler attached), The Gunmakers and also as a real ale in a bottle variant at home.

The beer is a pale, dry ale which tastes like a bitter but looks like a lager.

Out of the three pints I had, all of them tasted completely different! The best and most tasty pint was from The Mitre, I don't know why, but it was really fresh. They do sell a large volume so it may just be an age thing. The pint's I grabbed from the Gunmakers were nice, but were showing some cardboard tastes, which stem from oxidation. Maybe this is due to The Gunmakers location, I doubt they get the turnover of beer that The Mitre gets and it may have been a couple of days old or towards the end of the barrel. Finally the bottle I had tasted the worst. It was pretty astringent and had the taste of cooked corn, a sure fire sign of DMS.

Summer Lightning is an interesting beer, but what i have found most interesting is the change in character and taste between pubs and also between cask and bottle. The beer is considered a trend setter in the real ale community being the first true summer ale and is considered to be one of the most awarded beers in England. Website

Edit: 08/09/08

I think I may have been a bit hard on The Gunmakers. After having a quick pint in the packed pub on Friday afternoon, I witnessed a healthy turnover of ale (although the Mitre probably does turn over more - which was my original point). As it stands, I much prefer The Gunmakers to The Mitre for a number of reasons and I have yet to have a bad pint there. I just found the Summer Lightning to have a slight oxidation (it was till nice and far from stale). In all fairness, this is could also be due to a number of factors prior to the beer arriving at the pub in the first place.

Paulaner Original Münchner

Feeling hungover and slightly hungry, I decided to compromise with Mrs CB and let her select a place for lunch on the bank holiday Monday. To my disapproval she chose All Bar One (ABO). For those international readers, ABO is a chain bar - which is themed upmarket and is actually not that dissimilar from Weatherspoons (except its full of wankers rather than the socially inept). One thing that ABO does have going for it is the international beer selection. I opted for Paulaner Original (4.8% abv), a pale Helles style lager. This beer was ok, it came in a fancy glass, but I guess that they don't sell a whole lot of the stuff as it tasted past its prime. Hopefully I will not have to go back to one of these drinking factories anytime soon!

As an aside, I think I have an aversion to any pub (chain or not) that identifies each table as a number which you have to quote at the bar when ordering food.

http://www.paulaner.com/

Asahi

Ok, I won't dive too deep into this one as I do not really recall drinking it, but I can recall some of the events! After leaving The Porter thoroughly inebriated, we decided to drop into Wagamama (a pseudo-posh fast noodle joint) for a few dumplings. Me being a borderline alcoholic and not realising that a dozen pints is a decent session, ordered a bottle of Asahi. Let me just say that after enjoying some of Bath's finest all evening, sipping down the pale and insipid brew that is Asahi was an anticlimax! Yes, its gold, yes its fizzy, and no its doesn't have any taste.

http://www.asahibeer.co.uk/

Abbey Ales Bellringer

After a few pints of the delicious Barnstormer at The Porter, I decided to move onto the next pump which was serving up Bellringer (4.2% abv) from Abbey Ales. Bellringer is a pale ale style bitter which has a dominating citrus flavour which actually works really well with the biscuit like malt flavours that are coming through. The bitterness level is similar to that of the Alligator Ale I posted about last week, and it tastes pretty similar as well. As most regulars will know, I am a big fan of well balanced APA style beers and this beer falls into that category. According to an old chap I got talking to at the bar, this beer is hopped with a mystery variety from Worcestershire.... in that case this is one of my favourite English hop varieties then! Actually the website mentions that Bellringer is hopped with Challenger for bittering and uses Fuggles and Worcester Goldings for aroma/flavour. More info is available from the Abbey Ales website: http://www.abbeyales.co.uk/

Abbey Ales have been brewing in Bath since 1997.

Bath Ales Barnstormer

Over the bank holiday weekend I escaped from London and headed out Bath, a town steeped in history which pre-dates the Romans. After a morning exploring the Roman Baths and an afternoon relaxing in the new thermal pools, it was time for a beer. Being a Sunday, most of the inter sting pubs were closed and after a couple of false starts (read quiet and quaint on the outside, disco boombox on the inside) we finally settled on a cosy little pub with a student like feel called "The Porter". This pub was slightly alternative and only sold vegetarian food, not really a problem as I had eaten anyway but the best part was the pub was serving up local beer. Upon inspecting the pumps I decided to go for a pint of Barnstormer (4.5% abv) from Bath Ales. Barnstormer is a fruity dark ales, which roughly falls under the style of Porter, but only just and that is a very loose interpretation. By taste it is very much a bitter, however it does have some chocolate roastiness. A well balanced and satisfying ale!

Bath Ales are actually not located in Bath itself but in Warmley, Bristol just a short hop west of Bath. Since commencing operations in 1995, the brewery has slowly expanded and commenced distribution to major supermarkets UK wide after setting up a bottling facility in 2007. You can find out more about Bath Ales, and Barnstormer in particular at this website.

Hobgoblin

Seeking my regular Friday evening Thai food fix, I headed around to my local "The Old Parr's Head" in desperate need of some Pad Thai. The usual Ale suspect here is Pride, and its usually not kept well either. This doesn't worry me much as they have an excellent continental lager selection, as well as Guinness, Leffe and Hoegaarden to round out the ales. The first thing I noticed as I walked through the door was my Irish mate behind the bar, grinning from ear to ear. He had been waiting three days for me to come in so he could show me his latest addition to the bar - Hobgolblin (5.2% abv) from the Wychwood Brewery. He was even excited to show me the branded pint glasses! The Hobgoblin was in excellent condition as was the London Pride, and I suspect that they have started keeping the beer under CO2 (a big CAMRA no no, but really a sensible move) via a cask aspirator.

Hobgoblin is described as a Ruby beer, although it broadly falls into the style of Extra Special Bitter or ESB. It is similar to Fuller's ESB or Neame's Bishop's Finger in style and went down a treat. I think its reassuring that the quality of this beer has not gone downhill since Wychwood was acquired ultimately by Marston's last year. http://www.hobgoblinbeer.com/

Woodfordes Nelson's Revenge

I was recently given a bunch of Real Ale bottles by my wife for my birthday. These bottles came at a good time as my regular stocks from Tesco had dwindled and my cupboards were bare! Two of these gift bottles were Woodfordes Nelson's Revenge (4.5% abv), a Special Bitter which is fairly hoppy with a strong malt backbone. I like this beer, although I am a little put of by the marmalade aftertaste. To explain further, I am all for citrus flavours in beer, Like a good APA for example, but this sour orange taste was a little unpleasant and not really to style. One thing i do like about Woodfordes is that you can brew the beers at home. Yes, that is right! Woodfordes sell 3kg bittered malt extracts to homebrewers for all of their regular beers. Excellent. Website

Keo

I have found in the past that Greek beer is a little uninspiring. The usual suspects in this neck of the Mediterranean are Methos, Amstel and Alfa, all of which are bland generic lagers that are primarily brewed to cater for the English tourist behaving badly. I was enjoying a meal at "Wine and Moussaka" on Kew Green (an excellent restaurant btw) and was thrilled to see an unknown lager, Keo (4.5%) imported from Cyprus.

Keo is an unpasteurised lager which is rich in malt flavour with a mild bitterness. The beer is extremely tasty and is carbonated at around the same level as a zesty ale, so it doesn't have a sharp acidic edge to it, and its not as crisp as your standard fizz either.

The Keo Brewery was built in 1951 while the country was still a British colony. In addition to owning the island’s sole brewery, the brewery’s parent company, Keo Ltd., is the country’s biggest industrial giant, with monopolistic interests in mining, cement, water, wine, spirits, juice, and packaged foods. A solid performer and I dare say its up there with some of the best. http://www.keogroup.com/

Young's Kew Gold

Young's Kew Gold (4.8% abv) is a pale spritzy bottle conditioned bitter from Young's. I had the pleasure of getting my hands on this bottle at the Young's tied Coach and Horses on the edge of Kew Green. The beer is brewed with hops that are inspired by the varieties found in nearby Kew Gardens. My amateur hop detecting nostrils can detect styrian goldings (sorry no east Kent Golding's here) and maybe pride of ringwood. It tastes a little bit like coopers pale ale, ad pours a similar colour, however the beer is more harsh and has a strong carbonic bite as it is overcarbonated. This acidic bite makes the bitterness harsh and the beer not very refreshing. The beer is also bottle conditioned, so it qualifies as Real Ale under the conditions set out by CAMRA, but not that CAMRA's guidelines mean anything in the real world.

Basically I am a little underwhelmed by this beer. It seems like Young's have attempted to brew a basic lager under the disguise of a Real Ale, possibly in an attempt to convert lager drinkers into Real Ale fans? Anyhow, I still suggest that you check this one out, purely as its still an intersting beer (once you let it warm to ale temp and let the gas die down).

Ascot Alligator Ale

My wife surprised me for my birthday with a case of Real Ale bottles from RealAle.co.uk. The case is comprised of a number of tasty beverages upon which two of these were Alligator Ale (4.6% abv) from Ascot Ales. Alligator Ale is an American Pale Ale which is balanced a lot better than most beers of this style. Hopped exclusively with cascade hops, this beer is packed with all the piney citrus laden aromas you would expect, but it also does so without overpowering the predominant malt flavour. My only criticism of the beer is the amount of yeast sediment. There is at least a centimeter of sediment at the bottom of the bottle, which was hard packed and remained there. This will be welcomed by homebrewers who can propagate this yeast for use in there own breweries. I am going to be bold and say that this is the best beer that I have had this year to date. I would love to get out to the brewery one day and help out and have a look around (oh and yes, buy a gut load of beer!). This is definitely a beer to keep an eye out for. Information regarding Ascot Ales can be found at their website: http://www.ascot-ales.co.uk/

Ascot Ales began production in 2007, specialising in Real Ales with a New World twist.

Fullers Honeydew

Every now and then Mrs CB likes to pop into a cocktail bar for a sugar/spirit inspired swill. Being the nice husband I am, I always accommodate these requests as she more than puts up with - quote "old man pubs". One such establishment Vesbar is like an oasis of uber coolness in the desert of crap that is Goldhawk Road W12. After sorting out the Mrs with her drink I browsed down the taps looking for an at least half acceptable beer. The usual suspects are there, Carling, Fosters, Stella, Guinness, then there are some slightly more interesting options Fruli, Leffe and Fullers Organic HoneyDew. I opted to go for the Fullers as well basically Strawberries have no place in beer (really they don't) and Leffe sold draught in the UK tastes like sucking on a clove.

To be honest Honeydew (5% abv) is not really much better. The beer is served at lager temps and is sickly sweet. I am assuming that they make a nice pale coloured bitterless ale and then pasteurize the beer, add some honey and then send it out to the great unwashed. The beer is pretty bland besides its cloying sweetness, however I am glad that they don't ferment the honey as braggot (fermented wort and honey) is just a massive excuse for a hangover. Fullers have also adapted the additional marketing ploy of offering this beer with "Ice and a Slice" to compete with the success of Irish style ciders - a trend I was offered when ordering a pint of Discovery earlier in the year. Anyhow, you can read Fullers marketing material here.