Brewery: Innis & Gunn
ABV: 6.0%
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
Version: 330ml bottle

The other day there I was, drifting around Tesco picking up a few essentials, when I just happened to find myself at the beer shelves. I usually know what to expect to find, my local Superstore branch may have a reasonably good selection but new additions are not that common. So I was surprised to find this one, the Innis & Gunn Blonde. Being a fan of their Original Oak Aged Beer, covered so eloquently by Joe here, I quickly stuck a bottle in the trolley.

So what does this have to offer? First off, it’s described as lightly oak aged but still matured for 37 days prior to bottling. The alcohol content is slightly lower, 6% compared to 6.6%. And it’s still recommended “serve well chilled”. So basically it’s a lighter version of the original. All the characteristic Innis & Gunn elements are there, just lighter with a more hop-driven flavour.

The colour is a paler gold more in keeping with its blonde moniker, and the vanilla and oak is less pronounced in the aroma. The flavour also has less of these vanilla and oak elements, allowing the fruity hop flavours to dominate. This hoppiness also reduces the sweetness, but I felt it weakened the overall flavour. The fruity bitter aspect just doesn’t seem to sit well with the warm, smooth oaky elements that makes the original so wonderful; too contrasting. Overall, worth checking out but I’ll be sticking with the original formula.

Now to track down some of their new Rum Cask Finish.

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: Robinson’s
Location: Stockport, England
ABV: 8.5%
Version: 330ml bottle
Source: Sainsbury’s

I’ve had good and bad experiences with beers this strong and I’m happy to say that this was definitely one of the finer ones.

Approaching Old Tom (with due caution and appropriate respect) the first thing you notice is an aroma of smoky liquorice. The liquorice is amplified on first tasting as the thick, sweet brew rolls and washes across the palate. It’s followed by a whole host of rich, dark, sugary, malty flavours: toffee, coffee, muscovadot sugar, molasses and treacle, all combining into an uber-flavour that’s deliciously, dangerously more-ish. Definitely one to savour, despite the temptation to race through a couple more while you’re at it.

The bottle is embossed on the front with the famous Old Tom winking cat (“sup up lad, hangover’s coming”) and the back label extols the virtues of this classic old brew “entered into the head brewer’s hand-written notebook in 1899″, no less. That head brewer was some sort of evil genius, I tell you. May he rest in blissfully inebriated peace…

Brewery: Williams Bros
Location: Alloa, Scotland
ABV: 6.5%
Version: 330ml bottle

Or to give it it’s full name – Heather Ales Ebulum Elderberry Black Ale. Which tells you quite a bit already. According to their website info this ale is based on a 16th century recipe from the Scottish Highlands, and is made “from roasted oats, barley and wheat boiled with herbs then fermented with ripe elderberries.” Certainly sounds intriguing.

Surprisingly then it pours a rich deep brown colour, so not quite black, with a roasted malt aroma and some hints of fruit. The flavour is a lovely blend of lightly roasted malts, with a finely balanced slightly sour edge which never outstays its welcome. It’s altogether very smooth and drinkable, very moreish, with the only minor downside being a rather thin finish. Still, a very pleasurable drop, worth checking out.

Brewery: Innis & Gunn
Location: PO Box 17246, Edinburgh, Scotland EH11 1YR
ABV: 6.6%
Version: 330ml bottle

First impressions – why is this bottle so damned small? Real ale drinkers are not used to 330ml bottles – those are for lager drinkers and we feel cheated by such paltry sizes. But the glowing, golden colour of the beer draws my eye to the shelves and I find myself picking it up anyway (well that and a natural desire to support a – for me – local brewery). Glance at the back and realise it is a whopping 6.6% alcohol. Ah, smaller bottle size explained then – that’s basically like some of the Belgian beers and those too are usually offered in smaller bottles for the very good reason the more normal 500 or 550ml bottles would more than likely get you blootered before you had time to appreciate the taste.

And like some of those Belgian beers the Innis & Gunn is meant to be appreciated and that means this is a beer to be drunk slowly, not just to mitigate the strength of the alcoholic content but so you can savour it (yes, I know, all proper beers are meant to be savoured for taste and aroma, but the strong ones demand slow sipping so you may as well use the time to fully appreciate the craftsmanship which went into it). It’s a beautiful looking ale to begin with – the beer spent 30 days maturing in oak barrels, which gives it this splendid, golden colour, like warm amber. Most beers I’ve had with this hue usually are honey-coloured partly because they are in fact honey beers; not so here, as, like a fine single malt, this has picked up its distinctive colouring partly from lying in a particular barrel (an unusual maturing process for ale). I like the result and I also appreciate the extra layer of effort that this method entails, it inclines me rather positively towards it before I’ve even had a mouthful.

There’s a lovely aroma to this Edinburgh beer; it has the scent of an IPA which most ale drinkers will recognise, but the aroma is somehow softer, with hints of toffee (for once the blurb on the back is right, I could indeed smell and taste a pleasant toffee aspect to it). The drink itself is effortlessly smooth; in fact its smoother than a freshly shaved and waxed baby’s bottom. It slips over the tongue and massages the taste buds as it goes. Unusually for a real ale the bottle recommends it is served ‘well chilled’. Now we all know you can cool real ales if you want, but usually they are served at a warmer temperature than lagers. Strangely, despite being chilled, the initial taste is a warm feeling on the tongue as the golden hue would seem to promise.

Smooth and warm and fresh, the sort of drink you let linger in your mouth for a moment to delight your taste buds, again like appreciating a fine single malt. Lovely aftertaste too – you can still taste a lingering touch of it long after swallowing a mouthful and it is most pleasant. Despite the strength it comes across as very light – almost like an IPA – and I think you’d have to be careful not to be mislead by that lightness because at 6.6% drinking too much of this in an evening would leave you in that embarrassing situation Billy Connolly once called “getting drunk from the neck down”, where your head feels fine, the drink tastes lovely, you keep downing it and all seems fine until you try to stand to go to the loo and find no part of your body below your neck still works…

But that’s not a criticism – its rare for an ale this strong to look and feel so smooth and light. This is one to set yourself some quality time to enjoy – sit back, stick your feet up, pour yourself one and slowly savour it. It is exceptionally smooth, soft on the palate, made to be slowly sipped and enjoyed, as light to taste as the colour suggests yet not too sweet. And since it works so well chilled I think it may well be a great beer for real ale guzzlers like myself who, on very hot days (admittedly a rarity this summer) want the taste of a real beer but need something chilled and have to face that agonising choice of a proper beer (but warm to drink on a hot day) or resorting to chilled lagers or ciders. Now we don’t need to make the choice – keep a couple of these in the fridge, come home after a hot, busy day, pour one and let it wash away the stress…

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: Sharp’s
Origin: Rock, Cornwall, England
ABV: 6.8%
Version: 330ml bottle
Source: Sainsbury’s

The neck-label carries celeb-chef Rick Stein’s autograph and the story, according to the back label, is that Rick Stein challenged Sharp’s head brewer Stuart Howe to come up with “an English beer with the character, individuality and quality to stand alongside the Belgian greats”. Mr Howe came up with a strong beer that features “wild Cornish fennel” as the not-so secret ingredient and then named it after Mr Stein’s pet terrier.

And a very nice brew indeed it is, too. It’s a big, bold-tasting beer, with a rich, creamy texture. It’s not at all treacly or sweet – as a lot of the stronger beers I’ve tried have tended to be – and although it’s pretty potent stuff, it is remarkably drinkable. Worryingly drinkable, in fact, so it’s probably a good job they’re selling it in 330ml miser’s portions.

The fennel element might be a little off-putting for some, as the raw vegetable has a strong aniseed flavour which doesn’t always agree with everyone. But in beer form the aniseed seems to have been restricted to the aroma, whereas any lingering flavours are more vanilla-esque in essence.

I’d definitely like to try this one on draft, if it’s available, and as Sharp’s also brew the generally very highly-recommended Doombar, I think the idea of a short holiday in Cornwall has just taken on a whole new level of attractiveness.

Brewery: J.W. Lees
Origin: Middleton, Manchester, England
ABV: 5.0%
Version: 500ml bottle
Source: Tesco

To my great shame, I’ve lived in Manchester for sixteen years and yet this is the first one of local brewery J.W. Lees’ beers I’ve sampled. In my defence: when I first came to the city theirs was the local brew with the roughest reputation – and judging by the state of some of their city-centre pubs back then, you could see why – so, I readily admit, I was pretty effectively scared off.

Older and (hopefully) wiser now, I decided it was time to take the plunge when I spotted a bottle of their premium ale (named after the brewery’s founder, John Willy Lees) and I’m happy to report that I’m very glad I did.

John Willies has a mid-brown, amber colour, is light on the nose and is smooth, with nutty caramel tones, and a rich and sweet, rounded overall flavour. There’s a lingering sugary, almost syrupy texture which makes for an entirely pleasant sipping beer. Less bite than some of the similar 5% ales I’ve tried in the past, but I’d be happy to try a draught pint – at the slightly lower 4.5% – to see how it compares. Time for a trip up the road to Middleton, I reckon.