Brewery: Wychwood Brewery
Location: Oxfordshire
ABV: 5.2% (bottled, 4.5% on draught)
Version: bottled
Source: Asda (but available pretty much everywhere)

Colour me amazed … I thought this would have been covered here for sure!  It’s mentioned many times in this blog, but I don’t think anyone’s actually dedicated a posting to this fine benchmark of a beer.  So here we are.

I’ve loved Hobgoblin for years.  It’s one of those favourites I always make sure I have on hand, just in case a couple of the new beers I’m trying just don’t work out that well.  It’s full description on the bottle is ‘traditionally crafted legendary ruby beer’, and legendary it deserves to be.  Ruby red when poured, it’s a rich,  complex taste – chocolate to begin with, slightly nutty, malty, and a slightly bitter finish with hints of citrus.  Heavy perhaps, but that only adds to the taste, as does it’s 5.2% strength (but the strength never drowns the tastes, which happens with some dark ales).

Note – I learned very well on New Year’s Eve that Hobgoblin is not a session ale.  We were invited to a party at a friend’s house and, suspecting a profusion of Carling and John Smith’s Extra Smooth (my suspicions were correct), I took along two four-packs of this lovely drop.  I didn’t quite finish them, and besides, I blame the glass of red I had to finish the night for the fuzzy head I had next morning.

This one’s a winner, a regular on my shelf, and it comes with a great advertising campaign as well.  Perfect.