Tasting Notes: MyBreweryTap Mixed Case part 1

Brewery: see text
Location: see text
ABV: see text
Source: Courtesy of MyBreweryTap.com

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Back in November I posted about receiving a mixed case of beer from the generous folks over at MyBreweryTap.com and it’s really about time I covered what I thought about the individual beers in the box.

Breconshire Cribyn
I decided to start off with one from a brewery I’m quite familiar with, having already covered several of their beers and being, for the most part, impressed – the Breconshire Brewery from Powys in Wales. Cribyn is their 4.5% Best Bitter, brewed with Bramling Cross, Northdown and Challenger hops. It’s a pale straw colour with a light fruity aroma, and a doughy undertone. Taste is very much of zesty hops, a nicely controlled bitterness giving a very refreshing mouthfeel, and some malty notes in the background. Another fine ale from Breconshire and a pleasant start to the case.

Slater’s Ales Top Totty
Slater’s Ales was originally known as the Eccleshall Brewery, and has been based in Stafford, England since 2004. Top Totty is an award winning 4.0% blonde ale, so unsurprisingly is a pale straw colour with a light hoppy aroma. Flavour is of more zesty hops with a citrusy bitterness, and some malt pushing through on the finish, much better than the naff name and label would imply. Mouthfeel is a bit thin but it’s easy drinking and a couple of these would be quite refreshing on a warm summer’s day.

Old Bear Original
The Old Bear Brewery can be found in Keighley, West Yorkshire and have been in operation since 1993, with seven regular beers on offer. As well as making beer they also operate a bottle reclamation service, collecting bottles for re-use from pubs and clubs across West Yorkshire. Old Bear Original is 3.9%, is a dark toffee colour (or brown bear-ish) with a malty aroma of toffee, biscuit and toast. The flavour I must admit to finding a bit odd. There’s some caramel maltiness and some bitter orange/lemon hops, but there was an over-riding acetic quality which I found very off-putting and felt unbalanced the whole flavour. It may have been a bad bottle but I don’t see me seeking out another to find out.

MyBreweryTap.com arrivals

Back at the end of October, the Reluctant Scooper ran a post on My Brewery Tap and their 52 week beer club. This caught my attention, so off to their website I went. Northern Ireland poses additional difficulties for any beer mail order operation – not all mainland UK-based couriers operate over here, and those that do invariably charge more for delivery – so I’m always interested to see how this aspect fares in any delivery pricing set up. It may not concern mainland readers much but it can add quite a bit to the cost per bottle, and orders need to be quite large to keep that cost down.

My first impression of My Brewery Tap was very positive, a very competitive £9.99 p&p for up to 36 bottles, albeit all from the same brewery. But the Beer Club was what I was interested in and by way of an incentive, Ed and Richard very generously sent me over one of their mixed cases, which I believe pretty much mimics the contents of the current Beer Club selection. I could be wrong but based on most of the conversations I’ve had with people here, the idea of beer by mail is not something they would consider. Apart from the aforementioned increased delivery costs, they express concerns about the bottles getting broken. Well, if Laithwaites and their like can send wine over every day, why should beer bottles be any different, but I can see where they’re coming from. Richard from My Brewery Tap admits mine is the first case they’ve sent over here, and it arrived today via Home Delivery Network, who also operate the Collect+ service the Beer Swap guys are using.

For the benefit of Ed and Richard, here’s the opened box showing the contents all safe and sound -