Whitstable Bay

As I mentioned in another post, my brother in law is in town. Being an average Australian fellow, he has not had any exposure to real ale before and I thought a light refreshing ale with a 'down under' flavour would appeal to him. In this sense, I picked up a couple of bottles of Shepherd Neame's Whitstable Bay Organic Ale (4.5% abv) from Morrisons.

This beer is organic and is brewed with organic British malt and organic hops from New Zealand. For those who are slightly out of touch, New Zealand has the most exciting and promising new varieties of hops in the world. The new varieties such as Nelson Sauvin and Saaz D put the US varieties to shame and readily available despite the alleged 'world hop crisis'.

Anyhow, moving back to the beer! It has a slightly sweet malt flavour, with a nice dry bitter aftertaste. the kind of beer that you want after mowing the lawn on a hot summers day (which need not apply in the UK!). Anyhow, the verdict from the brother in law? "It's ok, but not as good as Tooheys Extra Dry". You can't win them all!

Whitstable bay is brewed at Shepherd Neame's brewery in Faversham. they have a website which is pretty good. I am also on the lookout for some of their delicious Porter which started to get distributed last weekend.

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!

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.

Website

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/

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!