Milds

Beer review: 99 Red Baboons by Blue Monkey Brewery

15/09/2012
Beer review: 99 Red Baboons by Blue Monkey Brewery

Follow @TheGuestAle Classic branding: colours and animals are proven to be the most memorable, so Blue Monkey sounds like a great name for a brewery. The Nottingham-based brewers have submitted their 99 Red Baboons creation into the Sainsbury’s Great British Beer Hunt 2012, so you can get your hands on it in Sainsbury’s until at least early October, longer if it wins. As the website says: “This beer is distinctly difficult to categorise – is it sort of a porter or maybe a mild?  You decide!” And it’s hard to pick. It has a session bitter ABV, a really full bodied porter feel but a mild’s silky texture. The colour is magnificent: dark ruby, although there’s zero head or...

Read more »

Beer Review: Cheshire Brown Ale from M&S

12/04/2012
Beer Review: Cheshire Brown Ale from M&S

Follow @TheGuestAle In the latest of our look at Marks & Spencer’s branded beers made by British brewers, we’re looking at the Cheshire Brown Ale crafted by Frederic Robinson of Stockport. It’s another old fashioned English ale made with British malt and Goldings hops, which is refreshing when almost every beer nowadays seems to be obsessed with IPAs. It’s a wonderful deep brown colour with a woody nose and a delicately frothy head. The taste is slick, smooth, caramel and nutty in taste. All in all an excellent session ale but a strong one at a premium zone 4.7%. If you’re going to Marks & Spencer, read our reviews of the M&S London Porter brewed by Meantime Brewing of...

Read more »

Beer Review: Lancashire Dark Mild from M&S

11/04/2012
Beer Review: Lancashire Dark Mild from M&S

Follow @TheGuestAle Apologies in advance to most site visitors outside the UK; you most likely won’t have access to a Marks & Spencer (M&S) near you. It’s a very well respected British high street clothing and food store and the company has teamed up with a number of brewers across the UK to create M&S-branded beers. We’ve looked at the M&S London Porter before, brewed by Meantime Brewing of Greenwich, London. Now it’s the turn of the Lancashire Dark Mild brewed by Daniel Thwaites of the same county. Mild is a traditional English style which you don’t see a great deal of nowadays. Milds are lightly hopped and in this case dark from the roasted malts, almost red. There’s...

Read more »

Beer review: Manns Brown Ale

26/02/2011
Beer review: Manns Brown Ale

Follow @TheGuestAle Once a true East End brew, made in Britain since 1902, the Manns “Original” Brown Ale is now made at Burtonwood by Thomas Hardy true to the recipe of its inventor, Thomas Wells Thorpe. Thorpe was hoping to create “the sweetest beer in London”, frustrated as he was by the prevalence of IPA and stout in London drinking establishments. Manns Brown Ale mixes up pale and crystal malts along with Target hops. As such it has a toffee smell to it which matches its flavour. It’s also incredibly easy to drink with a delightfully sweet finish. Manns Brown Ale is available in supermarkets, including Sainsbury. The essentials: ABV: 2.8% Colour:  Coke-coloured black Nose:  Toffee Taste: Toffee, malty...

Read more »

Hunt for beers…

Let’s get social…

Search by Beer Styles

Latest tweets…