I’ve been rather lazy on the beer blogging front since getting back from Tenerife at the end of October, I know. That goes double for beerblogosphere link-harvesting, but I’ve finally pulled my finger out and pulled the latest batch of links-of-interest together. But this first post-holiday round-up of beer-related blog-posts is going to be a bit of a monster so why not crack open a bottle of your favourite ale while you settle in for a skim-read?

Oh, incidentally, the big buzz while I was away was obviously all around the launch of Brewdog’s Equity For Punks share scheme, but I’m hoping to round that one up in a separate post as there’s a tonne of material to digest and I think it rather deserves a stand-alone.

Right then, without further ado…

We’ll start with more good news from Tyson’s Beer Blog: this year’s Bury Beer Festival is back on at The Met / Malt Bar! That’s our evening out for Friday November 20th sorted, then. And I have to say I’m deeply intrigued by mention of “an emphasis on live music throughout both days” given that The Met is one of my absolute favourite venues and a key node on the UK folk circuit…

Boak and Bailey have been on their travels again and spent an evening in Malaga sampling a few Spanish premium beers (absolutely none of which are anywhere to be found in the Canary Islands, in my experience at least). Back in the UK, Boak and Bailey also report on the first in a new range of experimental brews from Suffolk-based Adnams, which will be on sale in selected London pubs this month.

Impy Malting highlighted some new “beer is good for you” research. Low calories, b-vitamins, lower risk of hypertension and heart disease, plus sedative, anti-anxiety properties from the hops? Adrian Tierney-Jones provided corroborating additional material as well. Someone call the head buyer at Holland & Barrett…

The decision by Scottish & Newcastle Heineken UK to relocate production of Newcastle Brown from Gateshead to Tadcaster had Jeffo musing on the importance of provenance. It’s a topic that Pete Brown got quite grumpy about as well.

Pete Brown wasn’t happy with mainstream media reporting on the issue of binge-drinking, either. Meanwhile, he posted a very interesting piece on beer marketing: how to sell barley wine. He’s absolutely right, you know, it’s all about the story. And speaking of stories, Pete has also posted a ‘lost chapter‘ that was edited out of his book Hops and Glory prior to publication.

More great beer-pics from Beer Lens: giant bottles of beer, and a couple more likely-looking candidates for my list of London pubs to visit in the shape of the White Horse on Parson’s Green and The Old Doctor Butler’s Head in The City.

Quite a few bloggers seem to have had nothing but good things to say about mybrewerytap.com‘s first 52 Week Beer Club selection. I think our very own Ed has been signed up as well, so he’ll be bringing you the low-down in due course.

Zythophile’s posts are generally rather fascinating, and speaking as something of a medieval history geek, I thought his post on how to brew like an Anglo-Norman Knight was just top-notch and I enjoyed his beer-history debunking piece – beer: NOT the oldest drink in the world – and Kieve, Tierce and Bub post as well.

Woolpack Dave reports from the presentation of the International Beer Challenge 2009 awards, but wasn’t all that impressed with the overall winner: Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier.

Dave also mused on the question of just how small does a brewery have to be to be a microbrewery?

Steve Williams, a.k.a. The Beer Justice, reckons he’s found his perfect pub – The Old Poet’s Corner (and after reading the piece, I think we might have to move to Ashover).

Steve was also asked to judge the Beer category at The National Honey Show and had a damn good time in the process by the sounds of things.

Tandleman informs us that the Punch Bowl – the Yorkshire pub bought by Neil Morrissey and Richard Fox and immortalised in the Channel Four series Neil Morrissey’s Risky Business – has gone out of business. According to The Publican the two entrepreneurs are now looking for another freehouse in the Yorkshire area (and, at a guess, a follow-up series with Channel Four..?)

One of the many contributors to The BeerCast has taste-tested a couple of canned beers from the US and has come to the conclusion that “canned beer is absolutely no different to its glass-dwelling cousins” as a result.

Barm sings the praises of 5 Great Organic Breweries, including Manchester’s own Marble, over at I Might Have a Glass of Beer.

Zythophile again, this time with a few thoughts on the mystery of sessionability. And Woolpack Dave also speaks out on the subject, declaring himself to be firmly in favour of session beer. And Tandleman reminds us that ordinary beer is what the majority of the pub-going public want and that breweries would be mad not to give it to them. (For the record: I agree, nothing wrong with a nice session ale – or even a smoothflow if that’s genuinely what you prefer. I just wish more ‘real ale’ pubs would offer something stronger / more interesting alongside their core session range, rather than just a selection of identikit session pale ales and bitters, is all.)

Various beer-blogging types are supporting the Movember mens’ health campaign: BrewDog have released a Movember brew with a portion of the price going to the campaign, whilst The Reluctant Scooper and Ms Impy Malting are going the whole, mo-growing, hairy-faced hog. Mark Dredge is definitely with them all in spirit, if not in ‘tache.

Mark Dredge has also declared: Beer Blogging is Cool. And who am I to disagree?

And to finish off, a few more reviews / tasting notes of superb-sounding beers for the ‘must-try’ wishlist: St Austell’s Smuggler’s Ale (via The BeerCast), new brewery Steel City Brewing‘s Hop Manifesto (via The Reluctant Scooper) and Fuller’s 2009 Vintage Ale, one to keep and mature for a few years, (via The Beer Justice).

Right, that’s your lot for this instalment. I’ll try to get the next round-up out in much better time. This one has been exhausting… I don’t know about you, but I could do with a pint.

Brewery: Daas
Location: Hainaut, Belgium
ABV: 5.0% / 6.5%
Version: Bottled
Source: Courtesy of Daas

I must admit I’ve never been all that keen on wheat beer and these days I usually avoid it as much as possible (I have a wheat intolerance) but every so often I make an exception, just on the off-chance I’ve developed a taste for the stuff. So when the folks at Daas sent a couple of bottles of their organic Belgian artisan beers along for sampling and one of them turned out to be a wheat beer, I thought it would be rude not give it a go.

Daas Witte poured a cloudy golden colour with a thin white head and had a distinctly bread-like aroma. It was quite fizzy out of the bottle, although it settled down to a background effervescence before too long. Flavour-wise it was quite sharp and tangy, with a hoppy dryness, a hint of vanilla and something of a doughy after-taste. Not bad. Not bad at all.

The last wheat beer I tried was BrewDog’s Pixie prototype (as far as I know it never went into production) which was packed full of juniper and lemon zest, so it had a bit more going for it in the flavour department. But still, Daas Witte was, if not a beer I hugely enjoyed, one that was more pleasant than I remember Hoegaarden being, back in the day. I’m afraid you’d need to ask someone who actually appreciates and enjoys the style to give you a more meaningful comparison than that, though.

I cracked open the Daas Blonde immediately after finishing the Witte. This one poured a classic golden colour, with (again) a very thin head (I thought Belgians were meant to be… frothier? Perhaps I was using the wrong-shaped glass?) At 6.5%, I was expecting Blond to have a bit more substance to it than Witte and I wasn’t disappointed; the mouth-feel was noticeably thicker for a start. Flavour-wise, a honeyed sweetness dominated with a noticeably herbal after-taste. All in all it reminded me of cough sweets and not in a bad way at all (I’m quite partial to a nice lozenge, frankly).

Daas Blond is very drinkable indeed, as long as you’ve got a bit of a sweet tooth. I’d certainly be happy to try this one again, although I think next time I might chill it a little before serving. I think it’s one of those beers that could deliver a pretty good back-of-the-throat hit if it was taken down a few degrees and the lower temperature might help dial down that sweetness, which did verge on the syrupy.

Many thanks indeed to the folks at Daas for sending these two along for me to sample! If you’re interested in tracking down a bottle or two yourself, I believe they’re on sale in Waitrose, and you could try some of the online retailers. Or, if you’re not in a particular rush and are feeling lucky, Daas are running a competition with a monthly draw to win a 24-case of Blond or Witte:

[Click the image to see the full-size version]

Daas Organics around the beerblogsphere:

• FletchtheMonkey was quite impressed and said so over at Real Ale Reviews
• Roger Protz gave the Blond a three-point-five star rating.
• The Beer Nut concludes there’s more style than substance to Daas’s approach to brewing and marketing their beer.

Right then, one last 2008 round-up piece. And then it’s a slight change of direction for me in 2009.

As I mentioned at the start of my first 2008 ‘rest of’ post, I went a bit mad last year in an effort to try one of everything I could possibly find in the local supermarkets and in any off-licenses I happened to be passing. As a result I’ve found myself enjoying some truly fantastic beers, but also sampling rather a lot that fell into the ‘take it or leave it’ category: not quite distinctive or impressive enough to be worth making the effort to buy on a regular basis. And I also had one or two that were just bloody awful, but thankfully they were few and far between.

So anyway, in 2009 I’m going to try to focus on seeking out the best examples of those styles of beer that I know I’ve particularly enjoyed to-date: stout, porter, strong ale, dark ale, black lager and IPA. I’m going to try to avoid sampling endless variations on the light ale / pale ale / summer ale / best bitter theme just for the sake of it, unless they seem particularly interesting. Or at least, that’s the plan, anyway.

But for now, on with that round-up:

Brakspear Oxford Gold (4.8% abv, bottled)
Tried this one as part of a trio of organic beers, along with the Whitstable Bay (see previous post) and the Duchy Select (below). This one was a full-flavoured golden ale with a light, fresh aroma and a hoppy flavour. Very nice indeed.

Duchy Originals Organic Select Ale (6.2% abv, bottled)
This strong ale from HRH’s organic range pours a lovely dark red and has a tangy, sweet flavour with plenty of toffee and malt notes to savour. According to the website, it gets its full-bodied, complex flavours from a mix of organic hops and organic Plumage Archer barley malt organic rye and oats added. Whatever they put in the stuff, it works quite nicely indeed: well worth tracking down a bottle or two and I might re-visit myself before too long, it’s usually on the shelf in my local Sainsbury’s.

St Peter’s Amarillo Ale (4.8% abv, bottled)
Picked this one up as part of the Sainsbury’s summer ales promotion (there’s no info on the St Peter’s website, so it may have been a limited bottling for the promo). Amercian Amarillo hops give this beer a cloudy, ginger-beer colour and a huge aroma of citrus and spice. The flavour is big as well: slightly sweet and spicy with more ginger and lemon; rather like a wheat beer, all things considered.

Highgate Old Ale (5.3% abv, bottled)
Highgate Old Ember was one of my very favourite beers and a regular in the cupboard until about a year ago, when it seemed to disappear from the shelves.I’ve been keeping an eye out for it ever since and I was rather hoping that it had been re-branded as Old Ale… but it turns out they’re different brews (Old Ember is 6.5% to Old Ale’s 5.3). Old Ale is almost as dark Old Ember and its rich mouth-feel, malty sweetness and liquorice-bitterness make it one well worth trying, but somehow it just isn’t quite the same… my search goes on.

Davenport’s Original Bitter (4.0% abv, bottled)
As far as I can make out this one used to be a West Midlands staple, available pretty much everywhere in the region, but these days it’s brewed in smaller quantities by Highgate. And I’m afraid it was nothing special, to be honest: a light amber colour with a faint hoppy aroma, a slight bitterness and just a hint of citrus. One of those take it or leave it brews I mentioned at the top of the post.

Doctor Okell’s IPA
One of the winners of the Sainsbury’s promo (personally I was rooting for Red Rat’s Crazy Dog Stout, but there you go). Very lager-like to begin with, it warmed up to a reasonably hoppy light ale, but it wasn’t really anywhere near hoppy enough or strong enough for a proper IPA. Mind you, judging by the beer catalogue on the Okell’s website (which is rather excellent, you should definitely give it a visit) they don’t actually produce a beer over 4.8% abv (the traditional porter, which I would like to try), so perhaps it’s against their mission statement or something..?

Durham Brewery St Cuthbert (6.5% abv, bottled)
This was the last of the batch of bottles that I bought from The Vineyard in Belfast. It poured with a great deal of hiss and fizz but settled down to a lightly effervescent ale characterised by a rich, nutty flavour with hints of toasted bread. Not the best beer of this strength that I’ve tried to-date and not one I’d rush back to, but not too bad, all things considered.

Ridgeway High & Mighty Beer of the Gods (4.5% abv, bottled)
Another one from the Sainsbury’s summer promotion, High and Mighty Beer of the Gods is from Peter Scholey’s virtual or ‘cuckoo’ brewery (which means it’s brewed under contract by another brewery). The label proclaims it a British variant on a classic American over-hopped style, but I actually got more chocolate and malt from the initial flavour, with the hops kicking in on the after-taste. Overall though it was quite sharp, hoppy and generally very pleasant indeed.

Bath Ales Barnstormer (4.5% abv, bottled)
The other winner of the Sainsbury’s competition and a rather more deserved one than the Okell’s IPA (in my humble, etc.) This one was a rather fine chestnut-brown ale with a rich, roasted-malt nose and a nutty, chocolatey, biscuity flavour. A dried-fruit sweetness develops as the drink goes on, making for a well-rounded ale that’s very pleasant indeed.

Arundel Prize Fighter (4.6% abv, bottled) This one (yet another from the Sainsbury’s summer ale promotion) had a lovely, malty, chocolatey nose in the bottle and the malt carried through to the flavour, along with a sharp tang. A pleasant mouth-feel with a slight fizz and a warming sensation on the tongue made for a very tasty, very enjoyable bitter.

Bernard Special Dark Beer (5.1% abv, bottled)
An unpasteurised (microfiltered instead) Czech black lager that’s very dark indeed and quite tasty with it. Smooth and drinkable, with a faint tang of liquorice. Similar in character to the Herold Bohemian and BrewDog Zeit Geist I tried earlier in the year.

Hopback Summer Lightning (5.0% abv, bottled)
I have it on very good authority indeed (via my mate Andy) that this is an excellent draught session beer, just so long as you don’t actually plan on walking too far (or, in fact, anywhere) afterwards. In bottled form it was still pretty darn good: a pale golden colour, slightly honeyed to begin with, but a dry, bitter bite kicks in before too long to ensure that the overall effect is a nicely balanced, easy-drinking ale that I’m definitely going to have a couple of pints of on draught the very next chance I get. Definitely.

Right then, that’s enough rounding-up for now, although in future I might do a catch-up once a month or so just to keep things moving along. Back to the main Tasting Notes for me.

Back to the notebook for another lightning gallop through some of the beers that I sampled last year but didn’t quite get around to writing up in full…

Wells Bombardier Satanic Mills (5.0% abv, bottled)
Pitch black with a light tan head, almost stout-like, you can certainly tell this sister beer to Wells’ Bombardier and Bombardier Burning Gold is brewed with chocolate malt. With coffee notes and a lingering sweetness as well, it’s got a bit of variety to it as well. Very nice.

Greene King Strong Suffolk Ale (6.0% abv, bottled)
A very dark, almost black, ale with a strong, sharp flavour. Not too sweet, not too heavy, I’d happily have another go at this one.

Innis & Gunn Cask Strength Oak Aged Ale (7.7% abv, bottled)
There’s an incredibly rich, complex flavour to this 77-day ages strong ale, with a gobful of toffee at the fore. Quite sweet but with a dry edge: rather like liquified treacle tart. Very nice indeed.

Hall & Woodhouse Badger Hopping Hare (4.5% abv, bottled)
This “thrice-hopped” golden ale is exactly as described: hopped up and dry to the taste, with a refreshing finish. Not the hoppiest I had all year (BrewDog’s Chaos Theory and Saltaire Stateside IPA spring to mind) but hoppier than most, certainly.

Shepherd Neame Whitstable Bay Organic Ale
Brewed using English organic barley and New Zealand organic Gem and Hallertau hops, this pale, golden ale has a very mild character with definite citrus notes and a pleasantly hoppy after-taste. Refreshing and easy-drinking, I think this one might be a staple summer ale of choice if I can find a stockist round about May or June time.

Whitewater Clotworthy Dobbin (5.0% abv, draught)
Had a pint of this one in the Crown Liquor Saloon (Belfast’s finest beer-related tourist trap) on a visit to Ed’s neck of the woods last August. The website says it’s a ruby porter, but I remember it as more of a strong ale, to be honest. Either way, it was a rich, malty brew with a grapefruit-sourness that mellowed as the pint went on… definitely interesting, if perhaps a bit of an acquired taste.

Whitewater Belfast Ale (4.5% abv, draught)
A second pint in the Crown, this time Whitewater’s signature bitter. A rich amber colour, poured a bit on the thin side (although Ed’s pint looked heartier than mine), tasted like a slightly less strident version of the Clotworthy, making it a more drinkable session choice, perhaps.

Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Marzen (5.1% abv, bottled)
One of a batch of bottled beers I picked up at the Vineyard off-licence on the Ormeau Road in Belfast while we were in town. This German smokebeer is brewed with smoked-barley malt and it really shows: it smells like a wet barbecue and tastes like smoky bacon crisps (although, I hasten to point out, still in a good way). Definitely an acquired taste and I for one couldn’t drink it in quantity, but I reckon a bottle or two would go very nicely indeed with a good cumberland sausage or some crumbly white cheese.

Harviestoun Old Engine Oil (6.0% abv, bottled)
Another one from The Vineyard, sampled whilst staying with friends in their cottage on the east coast of Northern Ireland. An incredibly rich, smooth porter / stout cross-over with hints of chocolate and caramel. Very potent and very drinkable, this one compared extremely favourably to the Meantime beers I was drinking on the same evening, being just as characterful but not quite as sharp on the palate and I’d definitely grab a couple more bottles if I spotted it again.

St Peter’s Cream Stout (6.5% abv, bottled)
I’ve been on a personal mission to find my perfect stout for a while now and I think this may be a definite contender. And as I’ve just found out from the St Peter’s website that there might be an outlet near me that stocks their beers, I’m hoping to re-visit this one before too long for a full write-up. Short version for now: a rich, huge-flavoured, intensely satisfying stout that delivers a massive hit of liquorice via an incredibly silky-smooth mouth-feel.

Leeds Brewery Leeds Pale Ale (3.8% abv, draught)
Tried this one at the Ackhorne Inn on our most recent visit to York. It’s a very pale ale that turned out to have enough hops for a decent IPA. Hops upon hoped upon hops in fact, resulting in a drop that’s very dry, very sharp and very, very bitter.

Everards Tiger Best Bitter (4.2% abv, draught)
On the same night out in York, we wandered down to the Yorkshire Hussar, where this turned out to be the only ale they had on draught. It also turned out to be a bit of an odd one: very smooth, quite sweet and with an after-taste that I eventually identified as fresh strawberries (I kid ye not). The website claims a ’rounded toffee character’, so perhaps my tastebuds were just mis-firing.

Right then, that’s another twelve to be going on with, I’ll stop there for now. I think I’ve got another dozen or so in the notebook that are worth a quick mention, so I’ll make up a third batch with those sometime this week, time allowing.

[DT:] Ladies and gents, it gives me very great pleasure indeed to present BlogoBeer.com’s very first Guest Post. The author of the following piece is none other than Mr Tim Lebbon, one of the UK’s best-loved and most prolific modern horror and dark fantasy writers. He’s the author of recent novels including Dusk, Dawn, The Everlasting, Fallen, Mind the Gap (with Christopher Golden) – and many, many more besides, see his website at www.timlebbon.net for details – as well as the winner of multiple awards for his fiction and a thoroughly good bloke to boot.

Tim and I were e-chatting a couple of weeks ago and he happened to mention a forthcoming trip to Cornwall, during which he was planning to make a point of sampling a few local beers. I asked if he’d be interested in writing a guest post for us, Tim said he was up for it (I said “Huzzah!”) and so, without any further ado, here we go:

Beheaded at the Polperro Beer Festival, by Tim Lebbon

Sometimes, I don’t think my wife believes me. Let’s face it, we booked that weekend in Cornwall at the beginning of the year, and it was only a week before we were due to leave that a friend told me that the Polperro Beer Festival was on at the same time (3rd – 5th October). Once we arrived at our caravan site and her suspicions faded away, we popped along with the two kids for a couple of hours trying out some of Devon’s and Cornwall’s finest (I was doing the trying, not the kids). It would have been rude not to.

The Old Mill House in Polperro is a proper pub. The atmosphere is very friendly, locals sit at the bar with their lazy dogs, the staff are welcoming and very cheery, old pub games hang on the walls or sit around on little tables, and there’s a cat sleeping on the bar. “It’s a real one!” my 5 year old son merrily confided in me as he poked it in the head. It was indeed.

The theme of the festival this year was ‘Beer Less Travelled’ – in an admirable effort to reduce the carbon footprint of the event, all the beers were from local breweries. There were twenty-nine ales on offer, ranging from light session beers to several stouts and porters. My kids didn’t fancy a pint, and my wife isn’t a fan (I know … I know …), so I ordered food for the hooligans and a prawn curry for Tracey, and went about trying a few for myself.

I headed straight in with a pint of Black Prince from St Austell Brewery. I’m a big fan of dark ales – Hobgoblin and Theakston’s Old Peculier are two particular faves – so Black Prince was an absolute delight. Deep and dark when it was poured, a rich nutty nose, and it went down a treat, leaving a surprisingly full-bodied fruity taste afterwards. A gentle 4.0% volume, it tasted stronger, very rich in body and feel. I’d have happily had a couple more … if there weren’t twenty-eight other ales on offer.

So next I plumped for Organic Brewhouse‘s Serpentine. Not as heavy as the Black Prince, this was a deep ruby colour, quite tangy (a bit too tangy for me, I think), and though it was 4.5%, there was something lacking. Perhaps going for a lighter pint after Black Prince was a mistake, but this one didn’t quite do it for me.

The kids were almost finished with their meals now, and Tracey’s prawn korma was reduced to a single sad bugger swimming around in what was left of the sauce. Startled, I took a closer look, but the ripples were merely caused by my son kicking the table. “I’m bored!” he said, so I offered him a swig of Serpentine. Bless him, he quite enjoyed it. Fighting the temptation to ensure a good night’s sleep for us all, I finished the drink myself, and then went up to peruse the menu of ales.

The pub has a perfect set-up for an ale festival, with the barrels stacked nicely in a marquee that connects through a set of French doors into the rear of the pub. So those not indulging in the festival ales (and it’s a very reasonable £3.00 entry, which includes a commemorative glass and a programme) can sit at the bar and enjoy the still-impressive selection of beers available as standard. But I didn’t want that – oh no – not with twenty-seven other brews to choose from.

I guessed this would be my last pint. Sadly, with a tear in my eye and a flutter of excitement – or was that trepidation? – I ordered a glass of the festival’s winning ale, Beheaded, from Keltek Brewery. I say trepidation, because this was noted as a 7.6% ale … and I have to say, every hint of that was there in the taste. Gorgeous. A beautiful deep golden colour, and sweet to the taste, though not cloyingly so. Its power was obvious, but the brewers were patently not simply out to produce an ale of almost apocalyptic strength – they have taken great care to ensure that taste is still present. The name is apt, as I’m sure that after three pints of this you’d feel as if you’d been beheaded and shown your own backside.

I waved a fond farewell to the Old Mill House and all those lovely ales, and promptly went and spent £40 on a leather fedora-like hat. My kids think it makes me look like Indiana Jones (but without the diamond stud earring and bank balance, eh Harrison?), and though I purchased it whilst in the cosy fuzz of real ale squiffyness, at last nearing the age of 40 I believe I’ve found a hat that suits me. “Since when have you been a cowboy?” some kid in my village asked recently. I asked him when was the last time he’d played baseball.

And it’s all thanks to the Polperro Beer Festival.

There are already plans afoot to attend next year as well, but this time for a full weekend, not just a flying visit (live music in the evenings, too, which is also a big draw). I’d thoroughly recommend it to anyone looking for a fabulous place to stay. Polperro is one of our favourite places in the world, and that love has just been boosted ten-fold. It has many comfortable hotels and bed and breakfasts (including the Old Mill House itself … sleeping above a real ale festival … there is a Heaven after all), and some excellent places to eat.

Also, pasties. Need I say more?

On our long weekend away I also tried several more local brews in bottle form … but that’s a story for another time, and another hat.

Brewery: St Peter’s
Origin: Bungay, Suffolk, England
ABV: 4.5%
Version: 500ml bottle
Source: Sainsbury’s

Happily continuing the Organic theme re-started by Ed with his Oxford Gold post yesterday, we now come to the St. Peter’s Brewery‘s organic variant.

The first thing you notice about the St. Peter’s is the retro-styling of the elegant, demi-lozenge shaped bottle. Clearly setting out to make a statement there, although my cynical side fears an emphasis on style might betray a lack of substance, a taste of the brew itself is more than enough to dispel that particular worry.

Pouring a golden amber colour with a very thin head, this ale has a wonderfully complex flavour to it: peppery, nutty and chocolatey all at once. The rich texture of the beer gives it a very pleasant mouth-feel and its overall character is sharp, dry and bitter with lingering hoppiness. All in all: very good stuff indeed. Definite thumbs-up from me.

For a while, I naively thought this was perhaps the only beer in the St Peter’s range, having only ever seen this one example in the stores (until I encountered the Amarillo in my Sainsbury’s haul the other day). But a quick glance at their online store reveals a much wider range, including an organic bitter, two different porters and a stout, a bottled mild and a gluten-free pilsner-style.

A mixed case for £22.00, y’say? Where did I put my credit card?

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: Fuller’s
Location: London, England
ABV: 5.0%
Version: 500ml bottle
Source: Sainsbury’s

With a giant bee on the honeycomb patterned label and a major clue in the title, there are no prizes for guessing the predominant flavour of Fuller’s organic summer beer. It pours like liquid honey as well, settling to pale gold with a thin head of small bubbles and possesses a sugary, citrusy aroma that offers just a hint of what’s in store.

And that’s a syrupy sweetness; whole gobfuls of the stuff. In fact it’s so sweet I’d hazard a guess it’s practically an alcopop (or I would do, if I’d ever drunk such a thing on which to base a comparison, but I’m proud to say I haven’t). It could even be verging on mead territory? It’s been a few years since I last sampled actual fermented honey though, so again I’m not 100% confident on that one.

Okay, sticking to what I do know: despite the honey, honey, honey, there are more complex malt and hop tones that develop as the drink goes on. And at 5.0% abv it’s deceptively strong as well: the buzz creeps up on you quite pleasantly, even as that sweetness continues to lull you into a false sense of security (“see how light and tasty I am..? Why, I’m practically a shandy… Go on, have another…”)

So, potentially dangerous stuff, then. Luckily though, it’s so sweet that your tooth enamel will most likely start screaming for mercy after a pint… Or two, tops. But it’s damn tasty, all the same, so I’d be prepared to take the risk with a draft variant sometime. You know… for the team.

In a fit of what appears to be sheer optimism (judging by the forecast for the weekend, at least), The Independent ran an article on Monday that featured Roger Protz’s ‘Ten Best Summer Beers’:

• Adnams East Green
• Fuller’s Organic Honey Dew
• Meantime IPA
• Shepherd Neame Whitstable Bay
• Budweiser Budvar
• Duvel
• St Austell Clouded Yellow
• Young’s Kew Gold
• Brakspear Oxford Gold
• Goose Island IPA

I posted tasting notes on the Adnams East Green yesterday and the Kew Gold back at the end of June. I’ve got the Fuller’s Organic Honey Dew lined up next. Tried the Whitstable Bay and Oxford Gold a while back, but I’d need to re-visit before I could comment.

As for the others: Budvar is one of the better-flavoured commercial lagers out there, the Meantime IPA is on sale in our local Tesco’s and Duvel is available pretty much anywhere, so shouldn’t be too hard to track down. The Clouded Yellow I can’t drink (it’s a wheat beer and I have an Intolerance, or an allergy, or something – whatever, wheat is evil and makes me feel like crap after consuming it) and Goose Island is apparently only available in cases of 24 from T’Internets. Hmm.