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

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!

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

Slaters Premium

Greenwich is the 'official' center of the earth - where east meets west and where the most famous British maritime heroes received their training. Located just down the Thames from the City of London, Greenwich plays host to an observatory, the meridian line, the O2 dome, the British maritime museum and most important of all - The Trafalgar Tavern.

This pub is a bit of a London landmark and I wont go into too much detail although I will say that in general its always heaving and packed and also there is a cool bronze statue of Nelson out the front (even minus the hand!).

I opted to go for a pint of Slaters Premium (4.4% abv) a smooth and easy drinking special bitter. This beer is pretty boring really. It was served too cold, it is not really bitter enough and it tastes mass produced like nitrokeg bitter. I would probably go for it again, but would certainly not seek it out. Website: http://www.slatersales.co.uk/ourbeers.html

Hydes 1863

The Castle, hidden away in the back streets between High Holborn and Fleet Street has become one of my favourite Real Ale pubs in London. The staff are friendly, the beer is always in good condition and there are always several guest ales on tap at any one time. The fact that it is in close proximity to work is a bonus! Recently I dropped in for a few pints after work and the following few entries will describe the session! Hydes 1863 (3.5% abv) is an ordinary bitter from the Hydes brewery which is based in Manchester. before I had this pint, I had never heard of the beer, nor the brewery even and even searching google, I have not been able to dig up much information! The short of it is, an easy drinking amber bitter with mellow hops and a slightly spicy toffee/sweet malt taste. Sweet definetely dominates over bitterness, but there is a lot of flavour for such a low abv. More info about it can be found here.

Sharps Doom Bar

Back in London and enjoying the weather my wife and I stopped at "The Black Lion" W6, whilst enjoying a walk along the river Themes. Here I enjoyed a pint of Sharp's Doom Bar (4% abv) a well balanced special bitter from the Cornish Sharp's brewery. You may recall that I recently blogged about Sharp's Cornish Coaster which I had mixed opinions about. Now Doom Bar is a beer that I have a very favourable opinion on. The beer itself is very similar to London Pride, except the bitterness does not seem as harsh, this could be due to differences in the chemistry of the brewing water. On the plus this beer has lovely fresh fruity hop aroma and flavour, but it achieves this without being offensive. Overall Doom bar is a really good beer! Website

Acorn Brewery Barnsley Bitter

Again this beer was enjoyed on St Georges day at 'The Castle'. Barnsley Bitter (3.8% abv) is a dark copper coloured bitter which has nice biscuity and chocolate malt aftertaste. I really like this beer and I can't really think of any other beers which have a similar taste. If I could compare it to anything it would be Gales HSB, but with more of a roasted edge. The beer is thick and sticky with shedloads of malt. There is a solid bitterness which is balanced by the roasted flavours coming thorugh. To top it off, this beer has a subtle fruity hop aroma that rounds off this beer. If anybody has the grain bill for this beer, please pass it forward!

Website

Abbot Ale

After stubling out of the Williamsons Tavern quite late we decided to try for one more beer. After stumbling around a few back streets between Cheapside and Roman Wall we found a little local boozer which was closing up but didn't mind serving us one final pint. I made mine an Abbot Ale, which I have previously blogged about here. It went down OK, but it was time for me to head on over to Moorgate tube and get my ass home!

London Pride - 3

Ok, another one from the pub crawl last week. This one was consumed in the Three Kings in Clerkenwell. I have had this one twice before and you can read my original notes here! Please excuse the small post, but I have a serious backlog and pending international travel. I will be playing catchup for a month!

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!

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.

Fullers London Pride - 2

Yes I had another pint (again a bottled pint) of this during the intermission of "Wicked". This pint was really good and hit the spot, and certainly helped dull the pain from hearing high pitched voices singing (not necessarily badly either, just musicals in general). To read what I said about it last time click, here.

I'm sure I will have more than a few pints of this throughout the year!

Fuller's London Pride

Ok, things are starting to look up! Last night I had the pleasure of sampling two pints of London pride (bottled 4.7% abv) from my local brewery: Fuller, Smith and Turner plc.
This premium bitter is a staple in most London pubs and is Fuller’s “session” ale and flagship brand. I have to admit that I love London Pride and just to back up how good this beer is you can read this review here.

Fuller's London Pride
Fuller, Smith and Turner plc
This is a fine English Ale. Everything about it is as it should be. The bottle it comes in is made of thick heavy glass, and it's a good 500ml. Nothing lightweight about this beer. It pours a good copper colour and it smells like beer, nothing overpowering but you can smell it. And then you drink it. This thing is loaded with hops, but well balanced hops. There's this distinctive maltiness to it that seems to balance everything out. The brewmaster put a lot of work into it and you can taste it in the result. At first it's crisp and mellow, and then the malt takes over. It has a pleasant bitter aftertaste, just enough to remind you of what you're drinking. And that of course is an English Bitter, a fine one at that. It's easy drinking enough that you can drink several pints in an evening, and I've certainly enjoyed doing so tonight. I'd love to have this on draught somewhere, particularly if they serve it at the proper temperature. I'd probably end up rating it even higher. Darn near perfect.
(1/22/2005)

I have to admit that first experience with pride wasn’t a good one. It was a warm can served without love on a British Airways flight from Istanbul to London. I have to admit that I am glad I gave it a second try!