Brewery: O’Hanlons
Location: Exeter, England
ABV: 4.8%
Version: 500ml bottle

CAMRA Champion Bottle Conditioned Beer of Britain Gold Award 2003 & 2007

I didn’t know what to expect when I first got this. The idea intrigued me but I wasn’t sure I was going to like it. Mixing port and beer just seems asking for trouble. However, I’m glad I went for it.

As expected it pours a rich black colour with a slight reddish tint. The aroma is a lovely chocolately stout with a hint of smoke in the background, with the port adding some subtle wine notes. As far as taste goes it’s very smooth; chocolately, creamy, with some of the bitterness calmed down by the port but not overly so and some of that smokiness backing it all up. A very pleasant and enjoyable brew, certainly worth checking out.

Brewery: Fullers
Location: London, England
ABV: 8.5%
Version: 500ml bottle (Number 25835 of a limited 150000)

This edition marks the 10th anniversary of the introduction of this annual limited bottled release, which sets out to be a blend of that year’s best crops. The bottle comes in its own presentation box, with the label embossed with the number from the batch. Bottle-conditioning allows potential for the beer to mature over time much like a fine wine, making the legal requirement of a best before date a bit of a contradiction.

The individual nature of each year’s bottling no doubt makes for some differences from one year to the next, and quite possibly from bottle to bottle, but this being my first sample of any of them I can’t compare with previous ones. Fuller’s website describes the 2007 release as -
“A classic Vintage Ale with an aroma which incorporates spicy hop notes with rich fruit character and leads on to a very full malty, fruity, sweet palate which has a surprisingly clean finish coupled with a matching bitterness.”

Pouring a reddish, dark amber colour it’s initially very fizzy but quickly settles, probably just the beer’s eagerness to escape from the confines of the bottle and be enjoyed. Taste is very much of malt to the fore, some perfectly balanced sweetness and bitter hops in the background. At first its a bit overwhelming, all the different malt and fruit flavours jostling with each other for attention but give it a few minutes and they soon settle down. There then follows a pleasant lingering aftertaste, resulting in a beer to be enjoyed slowly rather than guzzled (especially considering that 8.5% strength), the better to appreciate the time and effort put into its creation. Considering this particular number had probably only been bottled for less than 6 months its very good, so leaving it for a while longer would no doubt have matured it very nicely indeed.

The 2008 release should be in shops in October (Waitrose and Sainsburys stocked the 2007), so I might just pick up a couple of bottles and stick them in the back of a cupboard for a year or two. Maybe even open them a few months apart. All in the name of research of course.

Brewery: Brakspear
Origin: Witney, England
ABV: 4.6%
Version: 500ml bottle

Brakspear are certainly drawing attention to the organic nature of this beer, with the hops and barley grown organically. I’ll admit this is never a particular selling point for me (it’s beer, that’s usually enough); I’ll not necessarily choose organic produce over non-organic just on priniciple, but quite often it does indeed taste better. I’ve had some very pleasant and drinkable organic beers and I’ve had some nondescript ones. Unfortunately, much like my experience of their EPA, this falls into the latter category.

Things get off to a promising start with a lovely golden colour with a pleasant and subtle fresh aroma. Then the disappointment sets in as the taste doesn’t follow through. Other than a slight bitter bite I was hard pushed to detect much else in the flavour, with a corresponding lack of aftertaste. It could all be down to the quality of the harvest used to make the batch this bottle came from, but I doubt I’ll be trying it again to find out.

Brewery: O’Hanlon’s
Location: Whimple, Devon, England
ABV: 5.0%
Version: 500ml bottle
Source: Tesco

I actually hope, for the sake of both brewer O’Hanlons (whose Port Stout I thoroughly enjoyed on the recommendation of both Ed and a best winter ales article in the Independent a while back) and the guy at Tesco who signed the contract, that this one had gone off in the bottle before I got to it. Because otherwise, what they have on their hands is a strange, sour-tasting, thoroughly nasty brew.

A light, hoppy aroma was promising enough, but the first taste had me grimacing and wondering whether I actually wanted to go any further. It possessed none of the sweetness and richness you often get from a stronger ales and definitely none of the “toffee and malt flavours derived from live conditioning” promised on the label. And yes, I did pour carefully to avoid sediment.

I struggled on for another few sips, but was eventually defeated as the taste just got more and more rank. About a fifth of the bottle went down under protest, but then the rest went down the sink and I turned to a trusty Hobgoblin to cleanse the palate and restore equilibrium.

Something very wrong here, surely? Alas, the only way to be sure would be to sample another bottle, and that’s not a risk I really feel like taking…

Brewery: Wells and Young’s
Origin: Bedford, England
ABV: 4.8%
Version: 500ml bottle
Source: Sainsburys

Young’s Kew Gold is (so it says on the neck label) “inspired by hops grown at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew” and a donation from the sale of each bottle goes towards rare species conservation.

The beer itself is a bottle-conditioned, amber ale with a warm, sweet aroma backed up with a satisfyingly fresh, hoppy and flavoursome taste, with hints of citrus in both. It pours fairly flat but a slight effervescence keeps the flavour alive and I’m sure on draught it would make for a very satisfying pint indeed, particularly on a warm summer afternoon in a beer garden somewhere. I don’t think it’s one I would stay on for a full session, but I’m definitely glad I tried it.

In a review in the July edition of CAMRA’s Beer magazine, Des de Moor suggests it would be “a good entry level Real Ale in a Bottle for the lager drinker.” Can’t argue with that.