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.

Brewery: College Green
Location: Belfast, Northern Ireland
ABV: 4.3%
Version: 500ml bottle

Continuing on from the last post, this is the second of three beers currently on offer from the College Green Brewery. A light ale, closer to a pilsner in character, it pours a light golden colour with no head. There’s a very light malty flavour present with a hint of bitterness but overall it’s just too bland. If you’re after an inoffensive thirst quencher it’ll certainly do the job but I found it lacking any lasting appeal.

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.