Brewery: Sambrook’s
Location: London, England
ABV: 4.5%
Version: Draught
Source: The Bree Louise, London

I made the trip to the Bree Louise again a couple of weeks ago and was rewarded for my detour with a pint of Sambrook’s Junction.

At 4.5% ABV it’s still well within session range and whilst it’s a little more substantial than it’s slighter sibling, Sambrook’s Wandle it’s no less refreshing. Junction does makes more of its malt flavours; there’s a big hit up front backed up with a spicy, nutty flavour that makes for an extremely easy-drinking, very pleasant pint indeed. Definitely one I’d be happy to drink all evening, if the opportunity arose.

Jo and I were in Nottingham this weekend for Fantasycon – the annual highlight of our social calendar – which was held at the Britannia hotel, just up the road from Nottingham Castle and The Olde Trip to Jerusalem. It would have been rude not to pop in for a jar while we were there, so I did, twice.

The Old Trip had a selection of half-a-dozen ales on offer. I started, on visit number one, with a couple of pints of Rock Mild (3.8% abv) from the Nottingham Brewery; a dark, sweet, slightly chocolatey mild that was perfectly palatable and went down extremely nicely on top of the rather fine curry we’d had just before.

The next day I nipped back with a few friends (while Jo had a strategic nap) and this time decided to give the house beer one more go. Olde Trip Ale (4.3% abv) is brewed for the Olde Trip by Greene King and Ed first posted tasting notes on this one back in June last year. I’ve encountered it a couple of times with rather disappointingly mixed results.

This time around though it made a much better impression on me: rich, smooth, malty and fresh-tasting. I must have been lucky and encountered a particularly good batch. (Quick name-dropping aside: Steven Erikson had nipped out for a pint with us and he was quite taken by the Olde Trip – pub and pint both – as well).

I also had a pint of Greene King’s seasonal Autumn ale, Bonkers Conkers, on a recommendation from my mate Mark Newton. Bonkers Conkers was a light (4.1% abv), nutty, pale / brown ale; another easy-drinking, entirely palatable beer that helped to set me up a treat for an evening back at the hotel quaffing bottles of (the oh, so terribly-amusingly-named) Piddle in the Hole from the Wyre Piddle brewery, which wasn’t a bad drop either.

It was a great weekend of catching up with old friends and shooting the breeze, made all the more enjoyable by some thoroughly decent beer. I think Fantasycon 2010 will be in Nottingham again and I for one can’t wait. Although I might be having a word with the committee about asking the hotel to source some bottled ale that doesn’t try to patronise its customers as they order it. Let’s face it, the joke’s pretty bloody thin, eh?

Brewery: Outstanding
Location: Bury, England
ABV: 4.4%
Version: Bottled
Source: The Met, Bury

Jo and I were looking forward to yesterday’s evening out at The Met in Bury for more that one reason: mainly because it meant we’d get to see the incredible Eliza Carthy playing live at one of our favourite venues, but also because we’d get the chance to renew our acquaintance with their range of locally-brewed Outstanding beers.

I was hoping for another go at the Outstanding Stout, or maybe their 7.3% hop-monster Pushing-Out, but alas it turned out that most of the range was out of stock, with only Outstanding’s OSB Bitter available. OSB it was then, so I ordered one for starters and another for the interval.

Very nice indeed it turned out to be, too. A light reddish-brown colour, hoppy and sharp with a very clean, refreshing, back-of-the-throat bite and plenty of flavour, even served straight out of the fridge. My interval bottle had been left out a while so I was hoping to sample it a little warmer for contrast, but unfortunately that one had gone off (which happens sometimes). I got the barman to swap it for another and that turned out to be just as good as the first.

My new mission is to find Outstanding OSB on draught. Jo and I are hoping to nip down the Trackside for a couple of afternoon pints tomorrow with a few friends, so fingers crossed. Although failing that, the Trackside’s house-beer – Outstanding Piston Broke – is always a very good, hoppy option. We’ll see what we shall see…

Brewery: Cairngorm
Location: Aviemore, Scotland
ABV: 4.4%
Version: Draught
Source: The Bank, Manchester

After a visit to Manchester Art Gallery yesterday afternoon to take a look at the Goya Exhibition, Jo and I founds ourselves caught in a sudden shower, so we headed for shelter and a pint at The Bank up the road. It’s not one of the Manchester city centre pubs we usually frequent, but it’s part of Nicholson’s Classic Pubs range, so I reckoned they ought to have a decent draught pint or two on offer.

I opted for a pint of Cairngorm Nessie’s Monster Mash and it turned out to be a very good choice. It’s a warm chestnut-red brown coloured ale with a distinct and pleasant malt flavour. Not too sweet and with a light hoppiness on the after-taste. Very drinkable indeed and it would have made for a good session beer if we’d been planning to hang around for a session. As it was though, we had plans to head on up to the Marble Arch (via a stop for sushi, cha han beef and some very surreal Japanese pop videos on the big screens at Wasabi in the Printworks), so I just had the one. I’ll happily give it another go though, if the opportunity happens to arise.

Our local (Prestwich, Manchester) branch of Tesco has scored poor to middling for its bottled real ale section for some time, but I usually stroll down the appropriate aisle on the optimistic, but usually-disappointed, off-chance that they’ve managed to stock something interesting for a change.

So I was pleasantly surprised yesterday when I wandered on by and discovered a scattering of ‘NEW!’ shelf-tags in the section. Pick of the bunch had to be two from Flying Dog, not only their pack-leading Classic Pale Ale but also one of their speciality brews: Gonzo Imperial Porter. At 8.7% I’m betting that one packs something of a wallop and I’m looking forward to trying it (£2.49 a bottle, by the way, and I think it was £1.69 for the Classic Pale).

I also picked up a bottle of Budweiser Budvar Dark Lager, on the grounds that there’s always room for another Czech dark lager in the beer cupboard. And then, crossing the aisle to the UK real ale in a bottle section, I spotted a few that were new to Tesco but that I’d either already sampled or seen in Sainsburys. Although the, up in the top-right corner, I spotted a few bottles of Morrissey Fox Brunette, so I grabbed one of those for sampling as well. The beer cupboard is once again full to over-flowing and there’s another consignment on the way from BrewDog as well. I know, I know, I really need to drink more…

But yeah, anyway, head on down to your local Tesco – you might be able to pick up something new and interesting. And speaking of supermarkets, have Sainsbury’s cancelled this year’s real ale competition / promotion or something? Not a sniff of it in our local branch, and I haven’t heard anything about it on my regular-read blogs, either. Anyone know what happened there?

Brewery: Coach House Brewing Company
Location: Warrington, England
ABV: 5.0%
Version: Bottled
Source: Tesco

Based on a positive experience or two with fruit beers recently (namely Fruli Strawberry) I thought I’d give this one a go. Best bitter? Blueberries? What’s not to like, right? Unfortunately, as it turned out, quite a lot…

It all started out well enough, with a whiff of crushed blueberries on the nose and a rather pleasant golden amber colour to the beer. The first sip was quite promising as well; a definite fruity tang, quite pleasant… until the after-taste kicked in: a very definite chemical-taste; quite sharp and citrus-acidic, bitter, but not at all in a good way.

I’m fairly sure (unless, of course, this one had gone off in the bottle) that the problem lies with the label’s ingredients list: “malted barley, blueberries and natural Blueberry Flavouring”. That last item? Not a good sign … if you need to flavour a beer with fruit, surely you should just stick to using fruit, no? If the fruit doesn’t flavour the beer strongly enough, add more fruit. If you have to resort to “natural” flavourings, then you’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere, I reckon. Anyhow, after another couple of mouthfuls to confirm that this one wasn’t going to get any better, it went down the sink.

According to a news item on the Coach House brewery website (Jan 12th) blueberry classic won a gold medal at the S.I.B.A North Region Beer Festival earlier this year, so I can only conclude it tastes a lot better on draught that it does out of the bottle.

Back in January I declared my intention to steer clear of average, bog-standard bitters and pale ales as far as I possibly could. When it comes to the buying of bottled beers I’ve done pretty well. Purchases of a pretty superb stout selection from BeerVentures.co.uk, a case of rare and rather exquisite Belgians from BeerMerchants.com and a couple of excellent BrewDog orders have helped to keep the quality averages consistently high and I’ve been exercising my willpower when it comes to supermarket purchases: only the most interesting-looking new stuff for me.

Inevitably though, there have been a few that in spite of their apparent promise haven’t turned out to be quite as remarkable as I’d hoped. And seeing as there are only so many times that your humble beer blogger can stretch “bitter ale, malty, some hoppiness” (or vica-versa as applicable) to a full Tasting Notes write-up, here’s another quick catch-up piece to clear the backlog from the notebook:

Shepherd Neame Late Red (bottled, 4.5% abv)
A very deep-ruby red bitter brewed with late-season hops. Not sure if the seasonality of the hops adds anything in particular to the flavour profile, but the brew was distinctly hoppy and bitter, although at the same time a bit on the flat side and without much else to distinguish it. Not bad, but not great either.

Jennings Golden Host (bottled, 4.3% abv)
A golden amber pale ale with a very hoppy nose that somehow doesn’t carry through into the flavour, which was quite mild and if anything, had a honey-sweetness rather than a hop-bitterness. With a touch of citrus as well, this would make for a pleasant summer quaffer, but isn’t one I’ll be looking out for in future myself.

Thwaites Liberation (bottled, 4.8% abv)
A smooth-drinking, but with barely a distinguishing characteristic to report back on – a touch of sweetness but hardly any bitterness to balance it out. I would have expected more from Thwaites, who usually know how to put out a decent brew and at 4.8% it should really have had a bit more bite, surely?

Black Sheep Yorkshire Square (bottled, 5.0% ABV)
A dark amber bitter with a hoppy, fresh-tasting flavour, good bitterness and hints of citrus to make things interesting. Nice. But not remarkably nice… (Ed wasn’t blown away either).

Orval Trappist Ale (bottled, 6.2% ABV)
I picked up a bottle of Orval in Tesco during my recent Belgian-familiarisation drive. It poured with a big head and a big aroma and turned out to be slightly cloudy, slightly effervescent and slightly sour. Not a hint of sweetness anywhere and a rather odd after-taste, too. I know this one’s meant be a taste that’s worth acquiring, but I don’t know… I’m unlikely to be going back any time soon, I think.

Wood’s Shropshire Lad (bottled, 5.0% ABV)
I’m pretty sure this one must have gone off in the bottle. Or at least, I hope that explains the cloyingly sweet, marsh-mallow, unpleasantly yoghurty flavour that saw the bulk of it dumped down the sink. I’ll give it another go sometime – if only on the grounds that my brother-in-law swears it’s actually a decent drop – but honestly, this particular bottle was just undrinkable.

Badger Golden Champion (bottled, 5.0% ABV)
I was highly impressed by Badger’s Golden Glory a while back, but this one didn’t quite hit the same high-notes. It was pleasant and drinkable enough: a rich, golden ale with a light, hoppy flavour and some definite citrus notes. But again, I’d expect more from a 5% ABV beer. And from a marketing perspective, I’m just not sure why Badger would want to have two such similarly-named ales in its range when they have such distinct characteristics? Anyhow, my advice: stick to Golden Glory for a much more interesting flavour experience.

Belhaven Twisted Thistle IPA (bottled, 5.3% ABV)
Along with a few others in this round-up, I rather think this is a beer that would perform much better on draught than it did in the bottle. A golden-amber ale that actually had a much more malty profile than it’s claim to IPA-status would suggest, with the hops not really kicking in until the after-taste rather than being up-front and central as you’d expect. With hints of honey-biscuit and a pink-grapefruit citrus tang it’s not unpleasant by any means, but it’s not remarkable either.

Maxim Double Maxim Premium Brown Ale (bottled, 4.7% ABV)
This resurrected recipe has been lovingly restored by the Double Maxim beer company; it was first brewed in Sunderland in 1901 to celebrate the return of the Maxim Gun detachment from the Boer War. The beer is a deep chestnut colour with a slightly vegetative aroma in-bottle. Hoppy and sharp with an underlying marzipan sweetness that develops into a definite almond flavour as the beer goes on. Pleasant enough, not so impressive that I leapt to try the draught version when I saw it a few weeks later; although who knows, maybe that was an opportunity missed..?

Cairngorm Trade Winds (bottled, 4.3% abv)
This one was left over from the selection I picked up in last year’s Sainsbury’s summer Real Ale promotion. A pale golden ale with a rich, fruity flavour and a lingering bitterness that became more noticeable as the pint went on, backed up by a smooth, satisfying mouth-feel. Would probably try this one again, especially if I found it on draught (Ed was a bit more impressed than I was).

Marston Oyster Stout (bottled, 4.5% abv)
For a stout, this one was remarkably thin, fizzy and generally a bit limp: a hint of coffee and chocolate, but barely anything to distinguish it from bottled Guinness. I’ve had porters with a lot more body and bitters with a lot more flavour and a great many stouts that were superior on both fronts. Not one I’ll be rushing back to in a hurry.

Wychwood Dirty Tackle (draught, 4.0% abv)
Tried a pint of this one at the Bull’s Head in Manchester at the end of a session. A pleasant, rich-chestnut coloured bitter with a well-balanced blend of malt and hops and dry, bitter finish. Pleasantly drinkable, but not all that remarkable. No sign of it on the Wychwood website, either; I’m guessing it was a seasonal brew for the Five Nations or something like that.

That’ll do for this time around. Got a few more in the notebook, so I’ll post another round-up later on in the year.

Brewery: Hobson’s
Location: Cleobury Mortimer, Shropshire, England
ABV: 4.8% / 5.2%
Version: Bottled
Source: Tanner’s, Bridgnorth

I’ve had the pleasure of sampling both these beers on draught in the King’s Head in Bridgnorth a while back (my brother-in-law swears by the Postman’s Knock and rarely sups anything else when it’s on offer) and the last time I was down there (visiting the in-laws) I picked up a couple of bottles when I was in Tanner’s wine merchants.

Opening the Postman’s Knock releases a rich chocolatey aroma and the beer pours a very dark ruby-red-brown with a fairly thing head. It’s a very rich, malty beer with lots of roast coffee flavours and more than a hint of dark chocolate. It’s extremely tasty, if a little thin in the texture department, but generally went down very well indeed. Definitely worth picking up if you see it.

By contrast, Old Henry is a noticeably lighter, amber-ruby ale. Flavour-wise, it’s quite dry, with distinct hoppy notes and a honey-and-orange tang that’s quite pleasant, carried along on a rich, satisfying mouth-feel. Again, it’s very pleasant, very drinkable and well worth sampling if you’re in the area; I’ve not seen Hobson’s elsewhere before now.

Old Henry is the slightly stronger of the two beers so I was expecting it to have a more complex flavour. But although it does get more interesting as it warms, I think on balance, I preferred the Postman’s Knock. Slightly richer, maltier, warmer; it just about has the edge on its hoppier sibling, at least as far as my taste-buds are concerned.

All in all though, a fine pair of beers.

Brewery: Wye Valley Brewery
Location: Stoke Lacy, Herefordshire
ABV: 4.0%
Version: Draught
Source: The Goose & Cuckoo, Upper Llanover

Wife and kids away for a weekend, the dog walked for 4 or 5 miles, a bit of work done, curry waiting to be made at about 7pm, it’s mid-afternoon, sunny, and my bike’s sitting there just waiting to be ridden.  What’s a man to do?  That’s right … visit the Goose & Cuckoo.

It’s quickly become my favourite pub.  It’s a proper pub, with no jukebox, no mobile phones allowed, pickled eggs, 80 malt whiskies, and always a fine, ever-changing selection of ales.  There’s a damaged spread of plaster on one wall where faces appear, animals in the garden to keep the kids amused, and a picnic area across the road if you want to take your own grub.

It’s also at the top of the steepest hill in the universe.

So after my ride up there (and I admit, I pushed a little), the first order of the day was a pint of water.  While I was chugging that, I ordered a pint of Wye Valley Summer Stinger out of curiosity more than anything else.  An ale made with nettles?  OK, I’ll give it a go.  It’s a dirty job, but etc etc.

Glad I did try it.  Usually a fan of darker, slightly heavier beers, this light-coloured ale went down smooth and refreshing on such a hot day.  Slightly cloudy, with a subtle ‘countryside’ aroma – cut grass, heavy brambles, ferns and forest – it also had a gentle citrus aftertaste. 

From the people who bring us Dorothy Goodbody and her variously wholesome ales, this is another winner. I believe it’s one of their monthly aleas, but I hope they brew it again next year.

As for the Goose & Cuckoo, it was a fine couple of hours, and it’s on my calender for another visit very soon.

Brewery: Purity Brewing
Location: Gt Alne, Warwickshire, England
ABV: 4.8%
Version: Bottled
Source: Tesco

The Purity Brewing Co have produced Farmer’s Harvest ale to mark the centenary of the National Farmer’s Union and it’s still on sale via branches of Tesco (it’s in stock in our local branch, anyhow). It’s only available in bottles and is the first beverage in the UK to be awarded the red tractor quality mark.

Taste-wise, Farmers’ Harvest is similar to Purity’s Pure Ubu Amber Ale but with a slightly more noticeable caramel / toffee sweetness to it. There’s a nuttier character in there, too – almond or pecan – but all in all it’s a similarly drinkable and agreeably tasty brown ale. Not a huge amount to separate the two, but I think Farmers’ Harvest might just edge it. I’ll have to give the two a go in one session and see if I can separate them (I know, I know… any excuse).

Well worth checking your nearest Tesco to see if they’ve got any in stock.