Wicküler Pilsener

As I mentioned earlier in the week I have been traveling for work. I had the fortune or misfortune of being layed up in snowy Wuppertal, Germany. For those of you who may not know much about Wuppertal it forms a triangle with Cologne and Düsseldorf in the Rhineland Westphalia region and is slightly south of Dortmund. It was once the richest city in Germany during the industrial revolution but like a lot of early industrial cities, it is now slightly lacking. It is also famous for the Schwebebahn, the worlds oldest suspension monorail which runs over the river Wupper.

Anyhow after an afternoon of traveling I finally arrived at my hotel, tired, exhausted and thirsty and swiftly checked out the mini bar. I managed to find a lone bottle of Wicküler Pilsener (4.9% abv) which I drained in two deep swigs. The beer was dry and thin like a Dortmunder style pils (which it is) but lacked the depth of other examples of the style such as Bitburger or DAB. Overall impression was ok, but not outstanding.

Wuppertal is geologically interesting as it really has no set beer style. The most popular style is Dortmunder Pilsener, Followed by Kolsch and Alt. Its proximity to the three beer epicenters of North West Germany provides a wide variety of beers.

The Wicküler Pilsener is in German, but you can check it out still. http://www.wickueler-pilsener.de/

Fuller's Golden Pride

Hmm, a quick trip to Waitrose on a Sunday afternoonand I return armed with some goodies including Fuller's barley wine offering - Golden Pride (8.5% abv). Pouring the beer into the glass it could easlily be mistaken for a pint of regular pride, a sniff reveils an aroma that is similar. The taste is when it all starts to fall apart with a sharp chemical like whack before a strong alcohol warmth. Not quite what I was expecting, not exactly pleasant, but not rubbish either.

Anyhow, I am not going to go into too much detail ('cause I am lazy today), so I have stolen someone elses review from ciao.co.uk.

"I seem to have been picking my way through a number of the heavier, higher alcohol ales of late. This is another of the “high end” brews from one of London’s old established breweries. They may not be suitable for regular drinking, but these “superior strength” beers do demonstrate the wide range of strengths, tastes and flavours that can be wrung from the limited list of ingredients that go into them.
THE BREWERY

“Golden Pride” is one of the prime labels from Fuller Smith and Turner operating from the Griffin Brewery in Chiswick, London. Fuller’s was established in 1845 and the Griffin Brewery name is trademarked fifty years later. A brewery has stood on this same Chiswick site for over 350 years, and a wisteria plant, the oldest in Great Britain has clung to the brickwork of the brewery for 186 years. The brewery is now renowned for brewing both organic and seasonal ales (ESB, London Pride). As well as these “conventional” brews they also produce some interesting “flavoured” beers such as “Honeydew” (original honey and recently introduced honey with cranberry) and the winter ale “Jack Frost” which is seasoned with blackberries.
It is available in both 500ml and 330ml bottles.

WHAT THEY SAY
“This superb quality premium beer is the equivalent of a Belgian 'Abbey Beer' and is arguably the 'grand cru' of Fuller's bottled beers. At 8.5% alcohol by volume, it is as powerful as some wines. In days gone by at Christmas, as a special treat, Fuller's pub landlords tend to keep a small barrel of draught Golden Pride on the back of the bar, dispensing to customers in strictly limited quantities. One beer writer has described it as 'the cognac of beers'.”

THE BOTTLE

Fuller’s use a signature dark brown bottle which has the Griffin crest and the logo ‘Independent Family Brewers’ embossed into the glass for their range of brews. The front label announces the brand name in large white letters on a dark red background with a gold surround. For further emphasis there are the three words “Superior Strength Ale”. This is no doubt all geared up to persuade you of the sumptuous treat you have in store. The crown cap also bears the name “Golden Pride”. The neck collar also displays the Fuller logo and crest as well as a representation of a number of gold medals.
The rear label tells you that this beer is an award-winning exceptionally fine strong ale of immense character and finesse. It has been brewed from Pale Ale and Crystal malts; Northdown, Challenger and Target hops. It also proudly boasts that “.. this is the finest example of our brewer’s art; truly a connoisseur’s choice”. Some claim!!The bottle holds 500ml and it is brewed to a 8.5% ABV.
THE DRINK

After the recent really hot spell, the garage has cooled down considerably and this bottle was kept in a dark corner rather than the fridge. It was at about 14°C when I came to drink it. The top came off easily enough. The “Golden Pride” poured a rich amber / red colour creating a reasonably thick foamy head. There is a fine tracery left on the glass as the ale is consumed. There was good carbonation in the glass. The ale is crystal clear and there was no sediment in the bottle.
The nose is quite complex with hints of caramel, Butterkist (TM) and a vague Oxo saltiness. This continued to develop with yeasty, aromatic and slightly earthy overtones. Let me hasten to add that the overall impression was quite delicious and certainly not bad or off-putting.The first taste is rich and bittersweet almost like a barley wine with traces of biscuit (? Rich Tea). This is a strong full bodied ale that is very – deceptively – smooth. Bitterness develops on the tongue with acquaintance but there are also hints of dried fruits, treacle toffee, marzipan and plum pudding. There is a satisfying, pleasurable warming glow on swallowing. The bitterness lingers refreshingly on the palate. Make no mistake, this is one heavyweight of an ale.
This is another of those brews that has to be respected. It is not one for idle quaffing. It reminded me very strongly of Young’s “Old Nick” that I reviewed a couple of weeks ago – perhaps just a little less sweet. It is an ale designed for contemplative appreciation; very much like a fine wine. I would not want to drink more than one at a sitting. Equally I would not want to serve it with a full blown meal, although thin slivers of apple or pear with a truckle of cheddar would not go amiss. Yes, I’d have an occasional one again – but I rate it just shy of the Youngs."

Anyhow, the website is here.

Bacchus Framboise

Hmmm, I actually bought this one for my wife and ended up drinking it myself. I am not the biggest fan of the beers of Belgium as such and this beer is no exception. Bacchus Framboise (5.0% abv) is light and refreshing with a spritzy tartness. Apparently they add raspberry fruit to give an intensely fruity beer. They are cheap on packaging too and the bottles are wrapped in paper. Actually they think they are French as well and use half champagne bottles instead of beer bottles. My honest opinion? Well it doesn't taste much like beer, its pink and well lets just leave it there. This should be classified as an alcopop!

Young's Winter Warmer

After Jay finally recovered a little bit, I took him to the Cabinet War rooms and the Churchill Museum and then a chaotic stroll along Regent Street. It was getting cold and late so we decide to head back west and grab a bite to eat at my former local - The Brook Green Hotel.

This is a Young's tied house that went upper class during a refurb after the smoking ban was introduced last year. Since then I have avoided the place, but I found myself in there last Saturday.

Jay was not drinking, but I got stuck into the Young's Winter Warmer (5.0% abv), the winter seasonal from Young's.

I really rate this beer - it is really nothing more than a dark special bitter but it tends to take on the character of a brown porter which I suppose suits the season well. Hopefully this is just a stepping stone in my so far unsuccessful hunt for Fullers London Porter! (Website)

The George Inn Ale

My posting has been a little sporadic lately as I am currently traveling with work. This means that I am pretty busy and don't get to blog much, but it also means that I get try some interesting beers. Anyhow as I left off, my mate Jay was in London over the weekend and I managed to take him out and show him around London. For whatever reason, sexuality or otherwise - Jay doesn't drink beer. So it was my mission to get him onto some of the local delicacies including the real ale. We ended up in Borough Markets after lunch on Friday afternoon and headed for the Market Porter. As usual it was packed, and unusual it did not have any interesting beers on. Jay is also a keen watcher of the TV series The Thirsty Traveler and knew there was a pub around the market which was featured on the show. A quick google on my trusty Nokia N95 and we were around the corner in The Georges Inn, a quaint 16th century coaching inn hidden away down a mews. This pub is a Greene King tied house and had the usual IPA, Abbot, Speckled Hen combo with one notable addition a house ale (4% abv). The beer tastes just like the IPA, but with maybe a slight caramel edge - overall not an ideal beer to introduce Jay to real ale.

For those interested, we then met up with Chris and his enormous head at the Jerusalem Tavern. I figured its decent enough (although not really my favourite in the area) and is not frequented by my boss or his mates. Jay had a pint of Mild and three pints of the Fruit (St Peters), I had a pint of Mild, a Golden and two Best Bitters. We then moved down to The Castle for a pint of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Anyhow, Jay spend the whole night, and half of Saturday driving the porcelain bus. He could not even keep water down. My wife was not impressed!

In other interesting news - Clerkenwell Shitter Deux Beers (on Hatton Wall) which I had blogged about previously, has been refurbed and is now an upmarket traditional pub. It is named the Hat and Tun which is a clever play on words. I am yet to check it out, but it received a favourable review in one of London's free commuter rags.

Rebellion Red

Today I am going to talk about another one from my Waitrose collection! Rebellion Red (4.5% abv) is a dark red coloured bitter which tasted quite similar to Fuller's ESB (which I have been drinking all afternoon). It tastes like ESB, but it has this acrid burnt taste in it, which I think comes from being a little heavy handed with 120L crystal. This beer was also really underwhelming hop wise, and I could not taste the cascade in it for the life of me.

The verdict? Well Clarkson really shat me tonight...

You can find out more about Rebellion Beers here. But I wouldn't bother!

On other news, my mate Jay is coming to visit. he is a soft cock and doesn't drink beer, so I am going to force him into the way of the ale. After seeing some of the insides of London's best pubs, I am sure I will have him converted. We are meeting my mate Chris (yeah the guy with the big head) near Farringdon for lunch on Friday. Even though I work in the area, does anybody have any suggestions on where I should take Jay? I have already ruled out the Sir John Oldcastle as its a JDW, The Mitre and a couple of others where my colleagues drink. I really don't fancy seeing them, on my day off!

Hook Norton Double Stout

Before I plonked myself down in front of the TV to watch Australia defeat England 28-14 on Sat evening, I rumbled through my ale selection and found a suitable beverage.

Hook Norton Double Stout (4.8% abv) is a tasty and well balanced stout that really went down a treat. Even though Australia did not put in their best performance, made 156 tackles to England's 60 odd, had one third of the possession and still managed to walk away with a win was all I could have asked for. Has this skewed my actual account of the beer for the better, but I still think this beer hit the mark a lot better than a pint of nitrokeg Caffrey's would have!

Out of all the winter ales that I have enjoyed recently, this is simply five star. Even up there with draught Fullers London Porter (which I still have not sampled yet this season - despite a mission out to Richmond where my dead certainty failed me).

Anyhow the Hook Norton Brewery is located somewhere in Oxfordshire. They make good beer. I like good beer! http://www.hooknortonbrewery.co.uk/

Harviestoun Bitter and Twisted Blond

It's a Sunday night, I have just eaten a rewarding meal of Steak and Ale pie and I feel like a beer to cut through the heartiness of it all. I start fishing through my beer celler and pick out one of my recent Waitrose purchases. Harviestoun Bitter and Twisted (4.2% abv) is a unique but very flavoursome ale. The combination of hersbruker and challenger hops give a taste similar to a feshly sqeezed lemon. Nice zesty and refreshing.
It makes even Jeremy Clarkson bearable.
http://www.harviestoun.com/

Caffrey's

I like steak and ale pie. As I was acquiring the ingredients in Tesco, I was stumped as to which ale to use. Surely a quality microbrewed ale is too good to waste on cooking?

Anyhow, I picked up a four pack of Caffrey's (4.2% abv) nitrocans and decided to drink one when I got home. The beer is creamy and bland. I do not have a lot of other comments!

I was very interested in the little indicator which turns blue when the beer is cold. Surely this is redundant when you can feel the temperature of the can on your hand?

http://www.caffreys.com

Morrissey Fox Blonde Ale 2

After our crawl we stopped into the Pontefract Castle near Bond Street tube for a quick pint. They had Morrissey Fox Blonde Ale on cask - which was a million miles better than the bottled version. I have updated my original post here.
By the way, my previous report had over 10000 hits from google searches yesterday - well up from my usual traffic!

Oakham Ales Bishops Farewell

After leaving The Bridge House, we decided to ditch the Maida Vale and Canalside walk and head around past Sheldon Square, through Paddington to The Victoria. From there we could pick up the around Hyde Park walk. Anyhow we made it to The Victoria no dramas. The beer festival was still running and the most sensible option seemed to be Bishop's Farewell (4.6% abv) from Oakham Ales. Two Oakham beers in two days!

Anyhow the Bishop's Farewell was in very good condition. It's a pale fruity bitter with spicy hop character and was smashed down quite rapidly. At this stage we considered dumping the pub crawl and heading out to the Guy Fawkes display at Alexander Palace - which was supposed to have a German Beer Festival going on. A quick call on my handy to Rich (who was there) and the idea was off. The beer festival was a few trestle tables and a keg of Paulaner which is kind of lame. And it was pissing down raining. We decided to move on and try and find The Archery Tavern the next stop on our crawl, but after a good 15 minutes of searching we discovered that it had closed down and a pretentious French restaurant now stands in its skeleton. Faced with a serious thirst and with the gates at Hyde Park being locked, we decided to cut crawls again and head towards Edgeware Rd and pick up the Marylebone walk. A ten minute walk saw us in The Wargrave Arms - a dive of a Young's pub. We had a pint of ordinary there. Then headed to a BYO Persian restaurant just around the corner for a recharge. A couple of pint bottles of Budvar sorted us out with our special bread, hummus and lamb koftis with rice. This place got pretty busy as we went to leave and some ethnic looking guy tried to pick a fight with me as I was walking out. Luckily for the other guy, Chris noticed what was happening and pulled me away and said that beer was more important - which it was! We walked down a street a bit to the next pub from the book - The Windsor Castle. A quick look around this odd pub and we walked out again. It is full of collectibles and was patronised by weird looking locals - not my bag to drink with a bunch of stamp collectors. We powered on through to the next pub which was The Beehive. This place was a little scary too, although I managed to have a pint of past its best TT Landlord. There were a bunch of soccer lads drinking Fosters at the bar - and a Polish girl behind the bar who was making me feel increasingly more uncomfortable by giving me the seductive eye. We walked on to the next pub which the name of escapes me - it had been converted into a Gastro anyway so we gave it a miss. Powering through the rest of the walk the rest of the pubs had either closed down or were closed for the night. Slightly disappointing, but I guess that life!

Oakham website

Hogsback TEA

After The Price Albert, we ducked through some backstreets down to the canals of Little Venice and made our way into The Warwick Castle, a nice pub with a massive lamp out the front! if you look at their website, you will see their regular ale selection is kind of bog standard and the guest ale they had on was Hogs Back TEA (4.2% abv) which we reluctantly ordered. TEA stands for Traditional English Bitter and is a standard best bitter. I found that the beer had a cloying residual sweet flavour in it, which is not really to my liking. For this reason I won't ramble on for too long! Check out the pub, but beware the beer is a little lame.

from here we crossed over the Canal and strolled into The Bridge House, a pub which is frequented by my wife's colleagues. A potentially good pub, which is ruined by a half assed gastro makeover and a theatre upstairs. Ale choice was Brakspears Bitter which you can read about here. They also had a few unusual German beers in tap, including a Kolsch if you are that way inclined. This pub also had a curtain around the toilet door, I could see no functional purpose in this furnishing!

Palmers Copper Ale

On Saturday, I met up with my mate Chris (featured here, and yes the guy with the huge head!) and we decided to undertake a gulp and grumble mission starting in Maida Vale. After navigating around a posh looking tramp (yes he looked posh and spoke in Queens' English) we made a beeline for The Warrington Hotel, a marvelous Victorian Pub which is now owned by Gordon Ramsey. The reason we chose this place as we decided to start our crawl by following the Maida Vale and Canalside walk from CAMRA's London Pub Walks book.

Anyhow after pulling up a stool at the bar we noticed the handpumps had the usual suspects. London Pride, Greene king IPA and Adnams Broadside - not particularly inspiring. The barman told me they were about to put a guest beer on, Palmer's Copper Ale (3.7% abv) so we asked him to make hast and bring us two pints. This beer is a nice session bitter, and it was in good condition but its hardly a beer to get excited about. Anyhow as it was our first pint it was all over in about 10 minutes flat and we were on to our next stop - The Price Albert. Those of you who have not been to here, really need to check this place out. The original Victorian fixtures and 7 foot snob screens are still in place. Sadly half the pub is being turned into a fancy restaurant and the only ale on was Young's ordinary. No need to rehash over that again.

Palmers website.

Ringwood Fortyniner

Well with the wife away, I decided that I should have at least one night in for the week so I headed to the new Waitrose at Shepherds Bush to stock up on supplies to make for a good night in. I managed to pick up a large coiled Cumberland Sausage, mashed potato, a large Yorkshire pudding and a selection of ales from the booze section. One of these ales was Fortyniner (4.9% abv) from Ringwood Brewery. The name is pretty self explanatory considering the alcohol concentration. The beer is a copper coloured bitter which I thought would go down well with my bangers and mash, and sure thing it did!

Anyhow for those interested I whipped up some onion gravy and served up my sausage on a bed of mash potato in a giant Yorkshire pudding. Awesome.... the simple things are always the best.

Website

Oakham Ales Inferno

It's Friday lunchtime and a couple of the lads in the office fancy heading out for a pint. We had not been to ye Olde Mitre for a while so we headed down in that direction. Walking in - nothing has changed. It's supposed to be one of the best/oldest (CAMRA types tend to interchange these words) pubs in London, but I do not really rate it. It's musty and the service is not very friendly unless you are a regular, plus they insist on pulling the beers through a sparkler (I know they will take it off if you ask, I'm just lazy). Anyhow as I had a meeting to get back to I ordered a pint of Oakham Ales Inferno (4.0% abv). This was a tangy fruity pint which went down really easy and has a lasting satisfying bitterness. This actually aided me in smashing the beer down in about three mouthfuls so i could haul ass back the office to join the heated teleconference. Lets just say that the beer was much more exciting than the meeting!

http://www.oakhamales.com/

Jennings Sneck Lifter 2

When I first covered Sneck Lifter (5.1% abv) way back in April, I found the beer to be slightly unremarkable in bottled form. I could not relate my own tasting experience with others that I had found online (ok, this is true to a point, but I was probably not as serious in my posting back then as nobody read my blog!). Anyhow, whilst I was in ticker mode down at The Victoria last Wednesday night I managed to quaff a pint fresh from the cask. What can I say, it's like a totally different beer...... The first thing I would like to point out is that I have been quite harsh on Jenning's beers that I have had previously - and I have carried this through to commenting on others blogs as well. I think this stems from the fact that the brand is owned by Marston's and I think that the bottled beers are brewed under licence rather than up in Cumbria.

The cask version however is full of flavour. I am going to be bold here and suggest that the real deal (i.e. casks) are brewed in Cumbria and not in Burton-on-Trent. The beer is complex and has a strong smokey coffee flavour which works really well.

Anyhow, once again if you would like to find out more, just check out the website.

For what its worth, I went on and continued to drink Trade Winds till we got kicked out at closing time.

Moorhouse Premium Bitter

Tied house beer festivals bring out the worst in beer geeks like me. I can't be satiated when I am onto a good thing - I always have to keep digging. I can understand how people become hardcore tickers, and browsing through the archives of my blog sometimes make me feel like a ticker! I think I will mix the format of this blog up come the new year, but for now it stays. It was my new years resolution after all.

Anyhow, it was Rich's shout and after harassing Dillon (The Ray Quinn look-a-like who runs The Victoria) we settled on two pints of Moorhouse Premium Bitter (3.7% abv). The beer is a amber coloured session quaffer and is smooth with a hoppy flavour. think John Smiths with a malty smoothness and a hoppy aftertaste and you will be close to the mark. Not a remarkable, but very drinkable and probably better than similar beers such as Brakspear Bitter. Well it doesn't have that sulphery smell that the Brakspear Bitter has.

Moorhouse has been brewing since 1865 and has been owned by such legends as Thomas Fawcett (the maltster). More history can be found on the website.

Cairngorm Trade Winds

We caught the tube around from Farringdon to Paddington and and quickly hiked passed the tourist trap pubs near Praed St and down to one of my favourite Fuller's tied houses - The Victoria. For those of you who have not been there, do yourself a favour and check it out.

We were hoping top catch the London Porter but instead landed ourselves in the middle of a month long guest beer festival which was occupying all but the London Pride pump.

We asked the young South African, Ray Quinn look-a-like landlord Dillon which beer he recommended, he replied he doesn't like ale. After ripping into him for five minutes about his favoured Castle lager, we finally ordered Cairngorm Trade Winds (4.2% abv) a delicious summer blonde ale which is hopped with perle and seasoned with elderflower. This combo results in a strong citrus flavour which works really well. The overall impression is like a clean wheat like APA - without the cascade bite. An awesome beer that I really like, and I am sure you will too.

Website

Baron's Black Wattle Superior

As we strolled along Hatton Garden towards Farringdon Station, I noticed the beer festival signs on the window of the local Wetherspoons place - The Sir John Oldcastle. For those who have never been to this pub, I will spare a comprehensive description. Just think tacky fruit machines, pensioners, tramps, sticky carpet, smell of sick and/or urine - You get the picture, its a dive. However, for one reason or another I was drawn to a beer from my Homeland, Baron's Black Wattle Superior (4.8% abv a bit weaker than the Aussie version which is 5.8%). Now initially when I heard (via my Uni Alumni letter, yes I went to uni with the Baron's), that it was going to be brewed by Marston's, I immediately thought that I would give it a miss. Nothing good comes out of that place. But curiosity got the better of me. I have had this beer before, back in late 2005 or early 2006 whilst in Sydney, and for those of you who don't know their Australian operations are brewed under licence by AIB. It's basically an Amber Ale with a nutty edge which is supplied by the roast wattle seeds. Surprisingly, this beer was actually ok, which is amazing due to where it was brewed. Still I did risk my own personal hygiene and moral standing by venturing into this establishment. I work around the corner, I was lucky a colleague didn't see me!

Website

Theakston Old Peculier

Ok, I am almost picking up where I left off! After writing my last post I skipped down to The Gunmakers to meet Rich. I was in luck , Old Peculier (5.6% abv) was on - a beer that I had not had since 2006 where I was served a pint that was at least 30 degrees celcius! (BTW that was at the Devonshire Arms, near Piccadilly Circus) As I raised the pint to my lips, I was subconsciously aware not to burn my lip! However I need not have worried as it was served at an impeccable cellar temperature. I also noticed that it had been pulled through a sparkler, something which this landlord is very anti! I think a sparkler works with this style and had no complaints. Rich was running a little bit late, so Jeff came over and we chewed the fat over a few pubs in the area and discussed beers which he was planning to order.

My verdict is still out on Old Peculier. Don't get me Wrong, I like the subtle plum and raisin flavours, but it's a sipping beer and I like to drink a bit faster - especially when its my first pint.
Anyhow we finished our pints and ventured out - our destination The Victoria in W2. A Fuller tied house. Old Peculiar Website

Dark Star Best

Ok, we finally found the beer we settled into for the night! Dark Star Best (4.0% abv) is a very drinkable tasty best bitter that in a blind tasting could be mistaken for a Mild. For a beer like this, the roast flavours that come through are unbelievable, and it was brewery fresh!

I will definitely be trying to find this beauty again! I also think its a lot better than Hophead - which I do not really find that hoppy!

Anyhow, thats enough blogging for one day. I'm off to meet my mate Richard at The Gunmakers before we head of on another adventure!

http://www.darkstarbrewing.co.uk/

I would also like to thank the guys down at The Castle for their generous donation of pump clips. If anybody else would like to give me some, I'm now accepting!

Salopian Golden Thread

Our search for a session beer continued! Due to the failure -The barman recommended Salopian Golden Thread (5.9% abv)- which is a straw coloured bitter. Golden Thread is the Salopian breweries oldest beer (well its 12 since they only opened in 1996) which is way before the recent trend of golden ales. This beer was insanely easy to drink and had a dry hoppy flavour. A session on this would have turned ugly! Our quest for a session beer continued!

BTW - The Salopian Brewery was established at The Old Dairy on the outskirts of mediaeval Shrewsbury in 1995. Since then the brewery has become synonymous with the production of top quality consistent beers.
The brewery has had to increase capacity twice to keep up with demand, with production now topping 80 barrels a week.

Royal Oak Traditional Bitter

This will be a short post as this beer was off and I sent it back! Royal Oak (5.0% abv) is brewed by O'Hanlons and is supposed to be a nice bitter - ours was sour though! I had high hopes as well as O'Hanlon's Yellow Hammer which I had earler in the year is awesome.
Its a shame to see beer go to waste like this - and there were a lot of people drinking "poofters mouthwash" - oops I mean Peroni. This is the first and hopefully last dodgy pint I will have in The Castle.

Mauldons Octoberfest

My wife is away on business, and as everyone knows when the cats away, the mice come out to play. And that is exactly what I did last night! I met up with a former colleague of mine for a few quiet beers at our favourite haunt - The Castle. Its not our favourite pub as such, but it is one of the only pubs in the only pubs in the area which is not frequented by people we know. And they have good beer. Just on a side note - a few of the higher powers where I work who used to patronize the Olde Mitre have recently had a falling out with the landlord. Now they drink at what was one of my preferred pubs for escaping colleagues - The Gunmakers. I guess Ye Olde Mitre's loss is now Jeff's gain! But then I have to be careful if I want to 'escape' so to speak!

Anyhow getting onto the Octoberfest (5.0% abv)! The beer is basically a golden coloured bitter, I think our pint was served slightly immature as it had the characteristic green apple taste of acetaldehyde. A nice beer, but we didn't settle down for a session on it!

http://www.mauldons.co.uk/

India Pale Ale

Another IPA (5.5% abv) I picked up in M&S. This one is apparently brewed with Burton-on-Trent water.

It was ok, but not as good as the Cornish IPA.

I have just dug a little deeper on the web and I have decided I do not like this beer. I have copied an excerpt from Roger Protz below. See if you can guess why I am not a fan!

"Marstons, (for Marks & Spencer) India Pale Ale (England) Brewed for M&S by marstons of Burton-on-Trent using Optic pale malt and Fuggles, Goldings and Cascade hops. It pours a rich toffee colour with a thick, creamy and persistent head. On the nose it is very appealing, with caramel and nutty notes, but plenty of zesty grapefruit, orange and leafy, hoppy notes. On the palate it is rich and smooth, with a full-bodied, creamy and warming cappuccino texture, and nice balance between quite bitter, punchy hop flavours and racy, citrussy fruit. The malt is subtle and just fills out the finish, in a lovely, quite complex beer. Almost worth four stars. 5.5% ABV, 50cl, £1.99, Marks & Spencer. "

Arghhhhhhhhhhh!

Cornish IPA

Changing the supermarket tone a little bit, I was poshing it up in M&S and came across Cornish IPA (5% abv) which is brewed by teh lovely folks at the St Austell brewery.

I was very impressed with this Real Ale in a Bottle and I now wish I had picked up another bottle. The beer is very clear (even after being carried a couple of miles in a plastic bag) and is towards the American end of the IPA spectrum. Nice citrus taste and an aftertaste of bitter marmalade. A tidy beer!

Henry's IPA

A quick post for a rather lacklustre pint. Feeling a little thirsty last Thursday I snuck into the Sir Chritopher Hatton after work. I noticed a new addition I had not encountered before Henry's IPA (3.6% ABV).

Brewed by the Wadworth Brewery, this beer is another best bitter dressed up in IPA clothes, much along the lines of Greene King IPA and Well's Eagle IPA.

For those of you who are real tickers/beer geeks here is the lowdown from the website.

HENRYS IPA 3.6% ABV

Named after the Wadworth founder Henry Alfred Wadworth
Palate:Malt dominates initially with dry hoppy finish and biscuity after-palate.
Nose: Floral hops aroma, with light fruit.
Comments: Devizes and surrounding area local bitter. A light and refreshing deep golden coloured ale.
Brewed from Pale Ale Malt (94%) Crystal Malt (4%) and cane sugar (4%) whole cone aroma hops - Fuggles in copper for bitterness (22 - 23 BUs) and character, Goldings in hop back for aroma. Primed with liquid cane sugar for secondary fermentation in cask.

The website is actually quite useful if you are a home brewer as you can easily use the information to devise clone of their beers!

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Batemans Victory Ale

Another beer that I picked up from either Morrison's or Tesco - Batemans Victory Ale (6.0 % abv) is a beer brewed to celebrate all things Nelson! And no, we are not talking about Major Nelson from 'I dream of Genie' or Nelson Mandela - we are talking about British Hero Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté, who led Great Britain to victory against Napoleon at the Battle of Trafalgar. A man of such legend that it is once claimed that he saw the Spanish Navy off the Sussex coast but insisted on completing his game of crochet (with one arm mind you) before sailing out to claim victory.

Anyhow, the beer is a reflection of the man, a strong aromatic pale ale laced with hop character, A good beer that lives up to its name. Also as a trivial side note the Lord Nelson brewpub in The Rocks, Sydney (named after the great man) also has a beer called Victory Bitter. However their version mostly compared VB, which is somewhat disappointing! Their beer is rather splendid as well.

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Belhaven Twisted Thistle IPA

I picked up this Scottish IPA (6.1% abv) whilst out shopping recently. I cannot recall where I actually got it, but it is most likely Tesco or Morrisons.

This beer is a strong and flavorsome IPA, which is hopped with Challenger and Cascade hops. It tastes quite restrained initially but the bitterness really kicks in with the aftertaste and leaves you wanting more.

Overall a nice beer!

http://www.belhaven.co.uk/

Morrissey Fox Blonde Ale

With all the TV and media hype surrounding this beer in the lead up to the TV show's launch last week, I jumped on the bandwagon to see what the fuss is all about.

Morrissey Fox Blonde Ale (4.2% abv) is a bland and inoffensive pale bitter. Actually I use the term 'bitter' rather loosely! Its actually more like flat Carling with some citrus aroma hops, and then not many of those.

There was an article in one of the Sunday supplements that included a recipe for the beer which I have copied out below. From an initial look over the recipe, I would say that this beer will work out a lot more bitter than the bottled sample I picked up in Tesco and would probably make a nice beer.

I also wonder if the unpasteurized beer that they serve in their pub is substantially different to the bottled version. But then I assume the cask variety is served under a sparkler as well!

UPDATE 12/11/08

This thread is getting plenty of hits through the search engines. While I stand by my original opinions on the bottle I sourced from Tesco, I have a very different opinion on the Cask version. I think that the bottled product is a different beer to the cask version. I think the bottles are probably brewed under licence somewhere else (This was verified by the third episode in the series). I had a pint of this on Saturday night at The Pontifract Castle in W1, and from Cask it is a very different beer. It's has a cascade aroma and is deeply bitter for a blonde ale. Nothing like the bottled version. I would have the cask version again if I came across it. Apparently its a guest beer at Nicolsons pubs at the moment. Worth checking out.

MORRISSEY AND FOXY'S BLONDE ALE
Makes 40 pints
Ingredients
4 kg Golden Promise malt

260g light crystal malt

39g Styrian Golding hops

32g Fuggles hops

10g Irish moss

15g Cascade hops

1 packet fast-acting yeast

Method
Add 23 litres of water heated to 77 degrees centigrade to a mash tun (an insulated brewing container).
Allow temperature to drop to 72 degrees centigrade and add both malts. Stir to form a porridge. Keep temperature between 62 degrees centigrade and 69 degrees centigrade for 90 minutes (by placing the mash tun in a larger vessel topped up with boiling water).
Strain the liquid (called the wort) into a large pan slowly. If it's not clear, return to mash tun and repeat till clear liquid is produced.
Heat to a rolling boil. Add Styrian Golding hops, Fuggles hops and Irish moss. Boil for one hour.
Add Cascade hops and boil for 15 minutes. Cool quickly and transfer liquid only to the fermenting vessel.
Add the yeast, cover and place in a cool room for two days. Siphon off the clear liquid into another fermenting vessel, leaving any flotsam and jetsam.
Ferment for three or four days with an airtight lid. Siphon off clear beer and enjoy.

http://www.morrisseyfox.co.uk/