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What beer to drink in Brussels

08/05/2013
What beer to drink in Brussels

Follow @TheGuestAle As I write this I am enjoying a small glass of Leffe and awaiting my Eurostar at Brussels Midi station. It’s actually really nice in that sweet, clovey, characteristically yeasty familiarness that we know most quality Belgian beers to be. Think “Belgian beer” and at one end you may think the genius of Trappiste monks, and at the other the ubiquitous Stella Artois. My Brussels-based beer connoisseur colleague tried to convince me that the Stella Artois in its home town of Leuven is worth trying. I’m not so sure, but I was happy for him to introduce me to a sample of other local delights, starting with La Chouffe. La Chouffe Coming in a 750ml bottle, this...

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US Beer Review: Anchor Brewing Special, San Francisco

20/04/2013
US Beer Review: Anchor Brewing Special, San Francisco

Follow @TheGuestAle San Francisco is possibly my favourite US city and I happened to be there on business this week. As well as being introduced to the impressive bar-cum-off licence, the City Beer Store, by my US colleagues, I also felt it would be conspicuous of me not to review beer from San Francisco’s most famous brewer, Anchor Brewery. Despite tracing its roots back to the 19th century, Anchor Brewing was at the forefront of the revival against the generic mass-produced beers of the 1970s. In the UK, we are probably familiar with the Anchor Steam brand, but in San Francisco I got hold of some other bottles to review… Liberty Ale Anchor Brewing’s Liberty Ale was first brewed...

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Beer Review: Dead Pony Club by Brewdog

19/04/2013
Beer Review: Dead Pony Club by Brewdog

Follow @TheGuestAle The modern, American style hop-fests that Scottish brewer Brewdog produces may not be to everyone’s liking. Those who favour malt-dominated ales and lighter weight beers may be averse to Brewdog’s strong, hoppy beers unleashing their floral notes on the Great British drinking public. However, for a gentle introduction to Brewdog’s line, look no further than the Dead Pony Club. While a massive leap from Brewdog’s near alcohol-free Nanny State, Dead Pony Club is still quite light at 3.8%. After all, we’re talking about the brewer that created the nuts strong Sink the Bizmarck at 41%. Dead Pony Club pours a rich amber-toffee colour and fizzes out of the bottle like a real livewire. As you would expect...

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Beer Review: Bath Ales Dark Side

28/03/2013
Beer Review: Bath Ales Dark Side

Follow @TheGuestAle I revel in the opportunity to visit Bath and I happened to be there again this week. Cue the opportunity to pick up another Bath Ales beer from Waitrose – this time the Bath Ales Dark Side stout. Up front, this is as close to a session ale as a stout could possibly ever be. It’s a nice round 4% ABV, bang on session strength, and it’s light-bodied and smooth, not the heavy “stout plug” types of the traditional black stuff. I think this is the quickest I’ve ever drank a stout! I feel like I’m drinking Marmite. It’s really heavy with black malts and benefits from a good balance of Fuggles hops but the malt fest...

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Beer Review: Curious Porter by Chapel Down

19/03/2013
Beer Review: Curious Porter by Chapel Down

Follow @TheGuestAle Tucked away down a country lane outside Tenteden in Kent is the Chapel Down winery. Not only does it make wine, but it also does a very passable line in craft beer. We already reviewed the Curious IPA, but tonight is the turn of the Curious Porter. The bottle conditioned London style Porter is matured in oak, giving it a woody feel and mountains of character. You can see the crystal malts come through in the reddish hue, the chocolate and black malts in the strong sweet Marmite nose, and the bitter Admiral hops fighting through to make themselves known. It’s wonderfully balanced and smooth, not too smoky, not too burnt, just a right balance of those...

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Beer Review: Exmoor Beast

14/03/2013
Beer Review: Exmoor Beast

Follow @TheGuestAle Wow. I just had my head blown off by a beast of a beer from the West Country. Exmoor Ales’ Beast weighs in at a hefty 6.6% (geddit?) and is named after the oft-spotted mythical (or real?) beast of Exmoor. This beer is sinister. It’s dark ruby, almost blood-like in colour with a lovely creamy mocha lacing, almost like a porter. The Exmoor Beast gets that colour – and its molasses and raisin nose, I imagine – from its use of Chocolate and Crystal malt. Challenger and Goldings provide the bittering and aromatic hop content. The taste is filling and deeply satisfying. It’s full bodied and it displays powerful cinnamon spice and clove hits with an oily...

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Beer Review: Hopdaemon Skrimshander

07/03/2013
Beer Review: Hopdaemon Skrimshander

Follow @TheGuestAle It’s been a while since I last sampled an English IPA; it’s not really been the season. So I dug out the Hopdaemon Skrimshander, something I picked up on a trip to Faversham last autumn.  It’s a proper Kentish beer, made from local hops. First impression is the massive head. It dissipates pretty quickly but it’s wonderfully carbonated throughout. The colour is cloudy marmalade, not wildly attractive. It’s described as “aromatic” but I didn’t really sense much of that bar a little distant tangerine in the nose. The taste is also rather neutral. There is a zestiness but it’s got a chewy maltiness to it that lingers at the back of the mouth for a long, long...

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Australian Beer Review part 2: Great Beer in Melbourne

26/02/2013
Australian Beer Review part 2: Great Beer in Melbourne

Follow @TheGuestAle Following on from a look at the best beer in Sydney, I moved onto look for the best beer in Melbourne, somewhere where I lived for a while several years ago and which is still my favourite city in the world. The beer has massively improved since, although – for visitors – it has shot up in price. This makes having a really good beer even more imperative. We looked at a couple of great pubs and also drove out to the White Rabbit brewery in the Yarra Valley, more famous for its cracking wines than its brewpubs. The first place I went to was the excellent The Local Taphouse in the trendy St.Kilda suburb. Like many...

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Australian Beer Review part 1: Great Beer in Sydney

20/02/2013
Australian Beer Review part 1: Great Beer in Sydney

Follow @TheGuestAle Australian beer just goes from strength to strength. When I first went to Australia for a year on a working visa in 2002 I had to content myself with pretty generic lager brands and find a decent one to stick with, which for me was James Boag’s from Tasmania (which I still quite like chilled on a roasting hot day). Fast-forward 11 years and it’s a world away. The choice across the country is incredible, micros have sprung up all over and flourished, and beers are finding their way overseas. Two years ago I visited – and was blown away by – the Little Creatures brewery in Fremantle, Western Australia, famous for its crisp and fruity Pale...

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Beer Review: Coffee in the Morning by Tap East

30/01/2013
Beer Review: Coffee in the Morning by Tap East

Follow @TheGuestAle Once again The Rake bar in London’s Borough Market served a newbie for my taste buds. Tap East is a microbrewery and brew pub on the Westfield shopping centre at Stratford, East London: AKA that stop you got off at for the Olympics. I wish I had known it was there as I have little reason to venture out that way now. Luckily, east came south and The Rake had Tap East’s Coffee in the Morning stout on draught. I’m in a stouty mood just now – it must be the weather – and this hit the spot. It’s pitch black with a light off-white head. Massive black malt nose, not really a big whiff of coffee...

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