Brewery: Sharp’s
Origin: Rock, Cornwall, England
ABV: 6.0%
Version: 330ml

Following up on Darren’s earlier review of Sharp’s Chalky’s Bite, it falls on me to cover their catchily named Honey Spice Wheat Beer. A quick browse of their website shows no sign of any reference to it, and I’ve already left the recycling box out and can’t be bothered going to retrieve the bottle, hence no photograph at this stage to illustrate.

So basically, they’ve taken the hops and wheat and barley malts, added some honey, stuffed the spices in and then left it all for 6 months to mature. The final bottle-conditioned product pours an unsurprising cloudy, light honey colour, initially very frothy but quickly settling to a much thinner head. The aroma is very much of fruit, hints of orange in there. The flavour starts off slightly malty, quickly followed with some well controlled honey sweetness and a hint of bitter sneaking in. No idea what spices have been used as they appear so well integrated into the flavour I had difficulty detecting them. The same could be said of any expected wheat characteristics; only for the label I wouldn’t have known this was a wheat beer. All in all quite an enjoyable drop and certainly worth checking out but I’m not sure I’ll be rushing out to repeat the experience.

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: Brakspear
Location: Witney, England
ABV: 4.2%
Version: 500ml bottle

Part of the Wychwood Brewery in Oxfordshire this is Brakspear’s revival of the popular English Pale Ale. Pouring a golden amber colour, it’s full of fizz but this quickly settles. The light citrusy aroma gives way to a light malty flavour but overall it’s too thin, with a rapidly fading aftertaste resulting in a disappointing finish.

Brewery: Breconshire
Location: Powys, Wales
ABV: 5%
Version: 500ml bottle

“Traditional ales brewed in the heart of the Brecon Beacons National Park, using water drawn from under the surrounding hills and only the freshest and best of UK grown malt and hops” is how the Breconshire Brewery describes what they do, and this CAMRA gold medal award winning ale is one of several from their range I’ve sampled recently.

This is a very nicely balanced ale, with the malt and hops combined perfectly to give a light chocolate, caramel flavour with a pleasant bitter zing. Highly drinkable and aptly named.