Bitters

Beer Review: Dead Pony Club by Brewdog

19/04/2013

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...

Beer Review: Exmoor Beast

14/03/2013

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...

Beer Review: Barnsey by Bath Ales

01/02/2013

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...

Beer Review: Cornish Mutiny by Wooden Hand

21/01/2013

Follow @TheGuestAle I do like Cornish beer. They always seem to major on malt and throw in just enough cheeky hopiness to give it a zesty kick. Wooden Hand is one of the newer brewers in Cornwall, formed in 2004 but growing fast. I picked up this bottle of its malt-fest Cornish Mutiny at a Tesco near Polzeath. The Cornish Mutiny is a dark murky brown colour with very little carbonation. There’s a very sweet toffee nose to it and a heavy biscuit edge. It’s fairly bitter too. It’s fairly light-bodied despite being a healthy 4.8% in strength, making it very easy to drink. It’s chewy, extremely quaffable and for those that like malt, you’re in for a treat....

Beer review: Willy Nilly by SA Brains

02/10/2012

Follow @TheGuestAle I’m in Wales right now and the country’s most prominent brewer is probably SA Brains. It has entered its Willy Nilly beer into the Sainsbury’s Great British Beer Hunt 2012, which ends on 3 October (just made it!). Named after the nosy postman in Welsh legend Dylan Thomas’ “Under Milk Wood”, the Willy Nilly is a ruby ale exclusively available in Sainsburys (at the moment). It is a really deep russet colour, rusty almost. There’s a distinct orange peel and champagne nose and it comes with an excitable, bubbly head. It’s smooth and light-to-medium bodied, which is good if you’re into your session beers, because that’s what this strikes me as – at just 4% it’s eminently...

Beer review: Sandhurst Legend

09/09/2012

Follow @TheGuestAle Another day, another diversifying winery. We recently looked at the beer being produced for Chapel Down wines of Tenterden, Kent, now I’m taking a look at nearby Sandhurst Vineyards’ beer, which it outsources to Rother Valley Brewing Co. of Northiam. Named after a local ghostly apparition, the Legend is the first of the Sandhurst line that I’ve tried. It blends three locally-grown hop varieties in Early Choice Goldings, Bramling Cross, and Challenger, so one can already expect a real premium English bitter experience. The Legend is a deep nutty brown colour. There’s a little carbonation the malt dominates the nose and taste, but there is a little room for the hops to show with a little zesty...

Beer review: Pure UBU by Purity Brewing

31/08/2012

Follow @TheGuestAle You might see its familiar canine branding around the place, but Purity Brewing’s UBU (pronounced Oo-boo) is actually named after a dog who protects the brewers’ secrets, no less. The branding is distinctive and I felt drawn towards it, even though I’m a cat person at heart. It’s simplistic and friendly, and that’s half the sales job. The beer is another matter. Featuring in the “World’s 50 Best Beers” at the 2007 International Beer Awards and sneaking into the Premium strength bracket at the 4.5% ABV mark I was expecting great things. It’s got an amber-toffee colour to it from the use of solely the Maris Otter pale malt variety. Coupled with the bittering Challenger hop and...

Beer Review: Wadworth Beer Kitchen Whisky Barrel Aged Premium Bitter

20/08/2012

Follow @TheGuestAle There are a number of breweries doing this: fermenting beer in wooden whisky casks to extract those smoky whisky flavours. Cracking stand-alone beers such as the reassuringly expensive Harviestoun’s Ola Dubh and Innes & Gunn’s Oak Aged Original can count the Whisky Barrel Aged Premium Bitter from Wadworth Beer Kitchen to their number. It’s aged in a whisky barrel for between two-three months to absorb the flavours from the oak casks. The whisky flavour is very subtle, I must say. The taste is more sweet caramel with an orange peel twist. It’s a deep copper colour with a bitter shandy nose, frisky head and medium bodied feel to it. Pleasant enough but whisky barrel beers are quite...

Beer Review: McEwan’s Champion

14/07/2012

Follow @TheGuestAle I’m a big fan of McEwan’s (owned by Wells & Youngs) line – particularly the 80/-, but this is the first time I’ve sampled the Champion ale. It’s one of those ones that’s suited for winter…or yet another rainy, chilly evening in July, as I happen to be drinking it. It’s a lovely deep mahogany colour with a raisin nose. It’s the taste that stands out here. There’s a rich treacle hit but if you swill it around your tongue you’ll get roast malts with hints of cloves, and even chocolate and whisky. At 7.3% it’s pretty hardcore. It’s rich like Christmas pudding, even Christmas in July… The essentials: ABV: 7.3% Colour: Mahogany Nose: Roast malt and...

Ten Great Session Ales

15/06/2012

Follow @TheGuestAle It’s an oft-used term that really needs definition: Just what is a “session beer”? In a nutshell, a session beer is a highly drinkable beverage that is light enough (typically less than 5% ABV, according to this Beer Advocate feature) to enable multiple beers to be downed during a “session” (time period) without intoxicating oneself. Some beers are way too heavy going – however flavoursome – to be considered “session” beers. One of my favourite ales, Jennings’ Sneck Lifter, is just over 5% ABV in strength but is so flavoursome and complex that (personally speaking) I’d rather save it for an isolated beer occasion, similarly some imperial stouts have that ‘beer plug’ effect, being very filling in...

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