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US Beer Review: Samuel Adams’ Belgian Session

20/09/2012

Follow @TheGuestAle I spent some in Belgium back in 1986 but I wasn’t old enough to sample the beer. That’s something I regret as Belgium produces more than 1,100 varieties of beer including some of worlds finest, such as the Trappist beer of the Abbey of Westvleteren and Gulden Draak strong pale ale. Belgium’s rich brewing history begins in the time of the first Crusades when the low alcohol beer was far more sanitary than the drinking water. This was helped by the moderate climate which is favourable to the growing of cereal malts in the region. For the first time this year Samuel Adams included a Belgian Session Ale in its Summer Styles variety box. The Boston brewery...

Beer review: Lemon Head by Nethergate Brewery

18/09/2012

Follow @TheGuestAle We return to the Sainsbury’s Great British Beer Hunt 2012 and to the Lemon Head by Suffolk’s Nethergate Brewery. Sainsbury’s PRs kindly sent me five of the 20 finalists to try out and the Lemon Head looked promising, not just because it reminded me of a band I saw in my 90s youth at the Reading Festival. Randomly, it actually looks and tastes like it should be called “Ginger Head”. The colour is golden treacle, quite clear and pleasing when held against the light. The head is zesty and citrusy. Maybe this is why it’s called Lemon Head, because that’s where the connection with aforementioned yellow citrus fruit starts and ends. It competes with malt in the...

Beer review: 99 Red Baboons by Blue Monkey Brewery

15/09/2012

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...

Sainbury’s Great British Beer Hunt 2012 gets underway

11/09/2012

Follow @TheGuestAle It’s a great time of year for beer fans because the Sainsbury’s Great British Beer Hunt is back! More than a hundred candidates from five regions have been whittled down by the experts to just 20, with four from each region. Breweries of all sizes are represented, from the huge S A Brain’s brand from Cardiff, to small craft and microbrewers. The 20 will go on sale in Sainsbury’s stores from 12 September for a period of three weeks, with the two best-performing beers from each region going into a grand final on 5 October. Two will then be guaranteed at least a six-month listing in Sainsbury’s stores from November. Ridgeway Brewing’s Bad King John strong black...

US Beer Review: Cherry Wheat Beer by Samuel Adams

10/09/2012

Follow @TheGuestAle Last of the Summer Ales, alas. It’s my first time popping open a cherry flavoured beer and I’m nervous. I’m a late bloomer when it comes to opening my mind to fruit-flavoured ales and I had always associate cherries with those tarty, bright, cocktail drinks that come with silly little umbrellas. In other words, I generally think fruity drinks are nothing to get serious about. It was pure chance that I noticed the last of the Samuel Adams “Summer Styles” variety box on the store shelf, which I hurriedly picked up as the Autumnal Harvest Selection box had already appeared next to it as if ready to oust it from the line-up. This selection from one of...

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...

US Beer Review: The Doppelrock by Great Lakes Brewing Co.

04/09/2012

Follow @TheGuestAle For those about to rock, we salute you! If you can manage get past the strange cover shot of the two guitarists on the bottle of this brew, you are in for a treat. The Doppelrock by Great Lakes Brewing Company is a Doppelbock lager that certainly delivers strong, loud flavour in this seasonal, rock-solid masterpiece. Doppelbock beers have been brewed for centuries starting with medieval monks who developed them as “liquid bread” to nourish them with sugars and high alcohol during fasting. (Yes. Apparently ordinary food had to be avoided sometimes in monastic orders but consuming vast quantities of strong ale was a perfectly acceptable alternative!). Great Lakes observes the tradition of the Bavarian Purity Law...

French Beer Review: Noire de Slack by 2 Caps

03/09/2012

Follow @TheGuestAle Here’s a man after my own heart: Christophe Noyon, founder of the 2 Caps brewery outside Calais. The two ‘Caps’ in question being Cap Gris-Nez and Cap Blanc-Nez on the North French coast, where Noyon and his wife Alexia started their microbrewery in 2003 in response to the industrialised and generic beer market in France. I couldn’t agree more, having recently noticed the paucity of decent beer outside of northern France. Alas, this is as far as 2 Caps’ beer is distributed currently. I reviewed its Blanche de Wissant last year, having picked up a bottle in the Côte d’Opale, and have finally got round to the Noyons’ (in my view) far superior Noire de Slack –...

US Beer Review: Wolaver’s Pumpkin Ale by Otter Creek Brewing.

02/09/2012

Follow @TheGuestAle Over the pond here the kids are back to school and the evening’s a little shorter and chillier. It’s time to start scouring for a seriously good pumpkin ale ready for when Autumn sets in. Pumpkins are big over here. Most kids visit the local farm pumpkin patch each Autumn and pick out a selection to carve for Hallowe’en. A month after that there’s the traditional Thanksgiving pumpkin pie. Autumn is generally one big Pumpkin-fest. Pumpkin ales start to appear in droves about now too, many of their flavours sadly dominated by the spices added rather than any subtle pumpkin or fruity flavour. Wolaver’s Pumpkin Ale attracted me because it’s actually labeled USDA certified as organic –...

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...

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