In between Xmas and New Year Jo and I were down in Bridgnorth, Shropshire, visiting her folks. A few weeks earlier Mum-in-law had told be that a new specialist beer shop had opened up in town, next-door to the White Lion on West Castle Street, and run by the folks at the pub. We went along for a look, but alas the place was closed through to Jan 4th, so looking was all we could do; peering through the window I spotted a few interesting-looking Belgians, one or two US imports and plenty of local brews, definitely enough to make plans to re-visit next time we’re down in that part of the world.

Luckily though, we’d already called in Riverside Wines on Underhill Street the evening before. They stock an excellent selection of local beers as well: when Jo and I nipped we discovered good dozen or so shelves of beers (and ciders, if that’s your thing) from all over the West Midlands and the South West. It would have been rude not to buy something while we were there, so we came away with our bottle bags full of the following:

First up, no fewer than four from the Beowulf Brewery. This award-winning brewery has been been brewing in Staffordshire since 1997. I’d not encountered any of their beers before, so I grabbed the most interesting / tastiest-looking from among a selection of eight on offer:

• Finn’s Hall Porter – 4.7% ABV, “inviting, dark, and smoky, hoppy and not too sweet”
• Dark Raven – 4.5% ABV, “traditional, flavourful mild”
• Dragon Smoke Stout – 4.7% ABV, “smouldering chocolate flavour followed by a mouth embracing bitterness”
• India Pale Ale – 6.4% ABV (no mention on the website, but I’m guessing lots of hops…)

I’m particularly looking forward to trying those (if Jo doesn’t claim the Finn’s Hall and Dragon Smoke before I get to them) and I’ll be reporting back in due course.

Next up, a bit of an assortment:

• Bewdley Brewery William Mucklow’s Dark Mild – 6.0% ABV, “A dark, sweetish, strong ale with a smooth fruity flavour and slight liquorice after taste.”
• Holden’s Dragon’s Blood – 5.6% ABV, “an assertive hop character and fruitiness dominating throughout”.
• Three Tuns Old Scrooge – 6.5% ABV, “A rich, dark and fiery, yet smooth, barley wine”, one for next Xmas.
• Lymestone Stone the Crows – 5.4% ABV, “Chewy juicy fruit flavours give way to a deep lingering bitterness”.
• Wood’s Christmas Cracker – 6.0% ABV, “A Dark ruby brew with a port wine flavour”, another one to save for Yuletide ’11.

• Hollows Ginger Beer – Think this might be an alcoholic version of Fentiman’s ginger pop. Or something like that…
• Wood’s Shropshire County of a Thousand Flowers – 4.7% ABV, one of a limited edition of 1,000 bottles
• Wood’s Pot O’Gold – 4.4% ABV, “A smooth drinking bitter”
• Corvedale St George’s Stout – 4.5% ABV (website just says “New Beer!”)

The Hollows Ginger and the Corvedale stout are for Jo and the middle two were actually an Xmas present from my ever-thoughtful in-laws, bless ‘em.

Plenty of potential in that little lot, I’m sure you’ll agree. Anyone tried any of them already? Anything to particularly recommend?

Brewery: Three Tuns
Location: Bishop’s Castle, Shropshire, England
ABV: 5.0%
Version: Bottled
Source: Tanner’s, Bridgnorth

Shropshire’s Three Tuns Brewery bills itself as the oldest licensed brewery in England (first licensed in 1642, more info on their website) and with Cleric’s Cure – one of their stable of regular beers – they’ve dipped into the history books again with a beer that’s “designed to re-create the iconic style of India Pale Ales of the 19th Century.” This places it alongside the likes of Meantime India Pale Ale, BrewDog’s forthcoming Atlantic IPA and Thornbridge’s Jaipur (and just-announced, even more traditional Seaforth IPA, which is another one for the ‘must-try’ list).

But back to the Cleric’s Cure. This one poured a lovely pale golden colour and offered a faint whiff of honey on the nose. The honey carried through into the flavour as well, with a big hit of syrupy-sweetness and a slightly sticky mouth-feel as well. There’s a definite citrus tang in there, that starts somewhere around lemon but ends up closer to grapefruit, but there’s little else in the way of bitterness involved; it seems to be sugars pretty much all the way. Which wasn’t what I was expecting from an IPA, I have to say: based on the two aforementioned traditional-style IPAs that I’ve tried recently (still haven’t encountered the Jaipur, dammit) then I’d definitely have expected a lot more hops, perhaps a bit more alcohol and definitely less sugar.

All in all, it’s drinkable enough, but probably a bit too sugary-sweet to become a regular tipple (even if I lived anywhere near an outlet that sold the stuff). Not terrible by any means, but not a new personal favourite, either.