Beer Review: Hopdaemon Skrimshander

07/03/2013
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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
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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
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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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American Beer Review: Groundhog Brew by Straub

17/02/2013
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American Beer Review: Groundhog Brew by Straub

Follow @TheGuestAle It’s been frigid this February in Pennsylvannia.  Temperatures  have barely crept above minus six degrees Celsius all month long and anything above freezing feels like an absolute heat-wave.  Last week they pulled the famed Groundhog from his slumbers in Punxatawney and against all odds he failed to see his shadow and predicted that spring is just around the corner!  As I defrost my frozen kitchen pipes I have to chuckle at the old rodent’s  sense of humour. At least that’s something to smile about and so, it seems, is the limited edition  beer brewed for the occasion! Introducing Groundhog Brew from a long established brewery in these part, Straub. It was 1872 when their founder, German-born Peter Straub arrived in...

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Beer Review: Barnsey by Bath Ales

01/02/2013
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Beer Review: Barnsey by Bath Ales

Follow @TheGuestAle West is best. I love the West Country. If the great cities, friendly people and awesome beach culture weren’t enough of a draw, there’s also the beer… We’ve looked at Bath Ales’ Gem before, so now we’re looking at another of its flagship ales, Barnsey, a deep mahogany-coloured bitter which combines Chocolate and Crystal malts to a Maris Otter pale malt base. Bramling Cross provides the hop content. It looks appetising enough, like a good old-fashioned best with a head like the surface of the moon. It’s a toasty marshmallow head with a popcorn nose. Mmm. Yeasty. The sweet nose contradicts the bitter taste. There’s a lot of bitter hoppiness going on, which is good. There’s a...

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Beer Review: Coffee in the Morning by Tap East

30/01/2013
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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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Beer Review: Mikkeller Oyster Stout

24/01/2013
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Beer Review: Mikkeller Oyster Stout

Follow @TheGuestAle I was at the Craft Beer Co. off London’s Hatton Garden the other day. I love the selection there and decided to splash out £3.95 on a half of Oyster Stout made by surely Denmark’s finest brewer, Mikkeller. Mikkeller’s beer really is reassuringly expensive; you know when you spend your hard-earned cash on a Mikkeller beer that it’s going to be worth it. I’ve got a soft spot for Oyster Stouts, one of my favourites being the Whitstable Brewery Oyster Stout (from the cask), but the Mikkeller Oyster Stout tops that, in my view – and not just because it cost me a king’s ransom. There’s a really silky mocha head crowning the wonderfully tar-black beer and...

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