Xmas / New Year 2008. A week and a half off work and a chance to hit the beer cupboard and see what falls out. I kicked off at lunchtime on Xmas Day with a bottle of Wychwood Plum Duff (5.0% abv), a seasonal number from the brewers of one of my all-time favourites, Hobgoblin. Quite spicy, with a sweet & sour character, I thought Plum Duff had perhaps just a little too much fruitiness for my palate, but the mellow, warming after-taste made it drinkable. Not a bad start…

Xmas dinner was accompanied by a drop of Innis & Gunn Triple Matured which Ed sampled back in November and I pretty much concur with his conclusions on this one: toffee, vanilla, a little oak, generally smooth with a pleasantly bitter-sweet finish. I also cracked open a bottle of Meantime Winter Time, which I wrote up during my Meantime series last year. Unfortunately, I was too busy tucking into my grub to pay much more attention than last time, so I’ll have to come back to that one for a third attempt at some point.

Next up was a bottle of Greene King Abbott Reserve (6.5% abv) which turned out to be incredibly tasty; much more so that I’d expected, I have to admit. Another smooth, strong beer with a pleasant citrusy tang (I detected orange zest and nutmeg without any help from accompanying a mince pie). Quite sweet but with a bitter under-current that stopped it tasting too sugary. Definitely one I’d go back to again.

Boxing Day was spent driving to and from family in Leeds, so I only had time for a couple of beers when I got back home: first up was William Worthington’s White Shield (5.6% abv, bottle conditioned). At 5.6% it’s not as strong as you might expect an IPA to be and it poured with more fizz and a lot more sweetness than I thought you should expect from the style. Not horrible, per se, but far from the best I tasted last year.

After that one I went for a bottle of Williams Bros Midnight Sun (5.6% abv). This porter seemed to be a fairly classic example of the style: a slightly sour whiff in the bottle, a very dark ebony with a tan head, a spicy, faintly smoky, sweet coffee flavour that was smooth and very drinkable. Another good contender for a regular slot in the beer cupboard.

The weekend brought another driving stint up and down the country to the in-laws’ and by the time Jo and I had spent at least half of the (unusually long at four hours) journey to Bridgnorth stuck in a standing-wave tailback on the M6, I definitely needed a couple of beers and I was hoping that another strong ale from Greene King – this time Old Crafty Hen (6.5% abv) – would hit the spot quite nicely. It turned out to have a hoppy nose, citrusy flavours and a surprisingly deft touch for such a strong beer. Alas, that deft touch meant that whilst it was decidedly drinkable, it lacked much in the way of character and was rather un-memorable as a result. A symptom of larger brewery mass-production, perhaps? Or maybe it’s just one of those beers that’s much better on draught. I preferred the Abbot Reserve, definitely.

I opened a bottle of Hall and Woodhouse Badger Pickled Partridge (4.5% abv) next and alas it was another fairly indistinct one, albeit quite pleasant and quite drinkable again. Very malty, with light spice notes and a lingering bitterness to the after-taste. Not much else to write home about. I’ve had a much better Badger beer recently, which I’ll be writing up before too long (all being well).

The next day produced much better results. Jo’s folks live not too far at all from The Bull’s Head at Chelmarsh, which – following a change of management a couple of years back – is a great food and ale pub, well worth checking out if you’re down that way. I nipped down after Sunday lunch for a pint with brother-in-law Richard and opted for a drop of Dorothy Goodebody’s Christmas Stocking (4.2% abv? -ish?), a seasonal ale from Wye Valley. Extremely nice it was, too, with distinct cinnamon and nutmeg spices; very easy-drinking indeed and neither too heavy nor too sweet. More enjoyable than the Plum Duff, certainly.

I was back down the pub in the evening, with Jo and her folks, for an Irish folk session laid on by landlord John and some of his mates. This time I decided to try another draught Wye Valley brew, their Hereford Pale Ale. At 4% abv it was a light, highly quaffable, golden pale ale that made for a great session beer – I stayed with that one for the next couple of pints as well – with a fresh, faintly citrus flavour and a very dry, hoppy finish. Good stuff!

But the scooper in me was sorely tempted by a third draught ale from Wye Valley: Dorothy Goodbody’s Golden Ale and so I switched to that one for my final pint of the evening. I’m glad to say that I wasn’t at all disappointed. Very similar to the HPA, but with less strident hop notes and a maltier finish. Altogether a very pleasant end to a very good evening (the music was more than half-decent, too). If only they’d had Dorothy Goodbody’s Wholesome Stout on as well… but that’s one to keep an eye out for another time.

I finished the seasonal Bridgnorth run with a visit to the town’s specialist wine merchant, Tanner’s, and picked up a selection of local brews that are now awaiting their turn in the beer cupboard. More on those in due course.

And there you have it. Not the entire Holiday beer session, I have to admit. There are a few others that I will be writing up separately, but that’s the bulk of my last ten days’ beer sampling. Mostly good, one or two indifferent, none bad enough to pour down the sink. Not a bad result at all.

The BBC website reported yesterday that UK beer sales are on the way down again – in pubs and off-licenses alike – to the tune of 7.2% year-on-year for July-September, according to figures from the British Beer and Pub Association.

The BBPA (or the BBC interpretation of the BBPA press release) was quick to blame the combined effects of the worsening economy and a 9% hike in duty on beer. I was surprised, though, that they didn’t make the rather obvious connection to the generally lousy weather we’ve had this “summer”. Surely that, coupled with the inability of any of the home nations’ football teams to qualify for the European Championship, would have had a fairly significant impact as well, no?

Anyhow, economic collapse and footballing ignominy aside, I’m happy to report that I’m still doing my bit, with a trip at the weekend to the (usually lamentably under-stocked) real ale section of the local Tesco which, to my surprise, resulted in the acquisition of no fewer than seven new (to me) interesting-looking bottled beers:

• Brewdog Punk IPA – recently reviewed and highly-rated over at The Beer Diary, so I’ve been keeping an eye out for this one.
• Morrissey Fox Blonde Ale – I actually had no idea when I picked this one up that it’s the subject of the new Channel 4 TV series Neil Morrissey’s Risky Business, which starts tonight. I’ll be watching that one via Sky+ later in the week.
• Williams Bros Midnight Sun – a rather interesting-looking porter from one of Ed & Joe’s favourite breweries (judging by the growing volume of their combined tasting notes to-date…)
• Farmer’s Harvest – a benefit ale for the NFU, but I’m not sure which brewery this is from as I couldn’t spot it anywhere on the bottle (or the NFU website).
• Jennings Golden Host – A premium ale from Cumbria.
• Orval – Belgian trappist ale; should be a good Autumn warmer.
• Pivovar Herold – Czech dark lager. One for the fridge.

There you go. Can’t say I’m not doing the best I can to help reverse that trend, eh?

Brewery: Williams Bros Brewing Company
Location: Heather Ale Ltd, Alloa, Scotland, FK10 1NT
ABV: 5.0%

The colour of Fraoch when poured from the bottle with its elaborately decorated label is a very beautiful, golden honey-amber. The back label blurb declares that it has a “flowery aroma” which is actually true, there is a very light, flowery scent from the ale, which shouldn’t be a surprise since it is “infused in heather flowers before being fermented in coppers tuns.” The blurb also goes on to say how this is one of the oldest Scottish forms of ale brewing, with native heather infusions in ale going back to before the time of the Picts (on a side note the label decoration draws on the elaborate Pictish art forms which gives it a nice semi-historical, semi-fantasy look – maybe serve it up with Hobgoblin at your next D&D RPG night!) and is apparently brewed to a Scots-Gaelic 16th century recipe (Scots, Gaelic and Picts – ticks all the boxes for Scottishness, couldn‘t claim to be more Caledonian if it had Haggis smoothies added in), part of a range of historic Scots ale recipes the brewer has resurrected.

Okay, I do find the whole Pict-Scots-Gaelic-heather-ancient-recipe a little bit overdone, although I can see why they’d do it for marketing reasons, especially for overseas markets. And the blurb doesn’t affect the taste, which is very smooth and warm; the ale itself has a lightness, slightly sweet (especially the aftertaste), although not too sweet, just right. One odd observation for an ale though – I noticed a very small but persistent stream of bubbles in my glass for quite a while after pouring, which is unusual in an ale, although it isn’t a large amount like you’d expect in a fizzy lager. I have had Fraoch on draught a couple of times (in Edinburgh’s Guildford Arms, an extremely highly recommended real ale emporium) and I’m trying to remember if too had more bubbles than usual. Again it didn’t affect the refreshing, light, aromatic taste, so it doesn’t matter too much other than as a little quirky detail. A nice, different beer to slide into your mix now and again.

Brewery: Williams Bros
Location: Alloa, Scotland
ABV: 3.8%
Version: 500ml bottle

So summer’s officially over and the nights are closing in but there’s still time to cram in another light summer ale review. And it’s another from the William Bros stable (just to continue the horse references started by Joe).

As per the label instructions I shoved this in the fridge for a few hours; it is intended as a refreshing summer ale after all. When it comes to deciding how a particular beer should be served I tend to follow any instructions on the bottle, with the view that the manufacturers should know how their beer tastes best.

Suitably chilled (okay, to be truthful it stayed in there a few days), and on a suitably warm evening (these notes were originally written up weeks ago), it was time to sample the contents. It gets off to a good start with a light golden colour and fresh hoppy, fruity aroma. The flavour is bright and zesty, leaning more towards the hops than malt, slightly sweet but pleasantly so, with a light and refreshing finish. Very pleasant on a hot day, the chilling doesn’t mar the flavour; I suspect that, like Deuchars IPA, it might actually taste worse at room temperature. Overall, Harvest Sun doesn’t stand out from the crowd of others of this style, but it’s enjoyable and I’d happily drink another if it was offered.

Brewery: William Bros Brewing Co
Location: Kelliebank, Alloa, Scotland, FK10 1NT
ABV: 4.2%
Version: 500ml bottle

You may have come across the micro-brewed beers of Bruce and Scott, the William Bros, before as they do some rather nice beers. And because Ed just reviewed Good Times from the same brewery (we’ve both obviously been grabbing similar liquid loot from our respective Sainsbury’s branches). This was the first time I had tried a fruity one from them though. And you are probably asking what the heck is a Tayberry? Well I must confess I hadn’t heard of them either, but the label blurb informs me that it’s a cross between a Raspberry and Blackberry (the fruit, not the trendy phone/PDA) grown in the Tay river area of Scotland.

Roisin (pronounced Rosheen) is apparently ‘pink’ according to the blurb. Which shows you why you can’t always believe label blurb because, well, it isn’t pink. Although really I think the boys were being humorous from the tone of the blurb, so I won’t hold that against them! Actually the colour is rather more like the warm red of firelight reflected in brass or copper; quite attractive and inviting. There is an enticing fruity aroma, although I noticed by the time I was halfway through my pint it wasn’t as strong, but perhaps that might just be my nose becoming used to the scent – you know how it is once you’re around an aroma for a little while, you don’t notice it so much, so that’s fairly subjective.

The taste is very smooth, fairly light (no mean feat with it being a 4.2% ale), very enjoyable, nice malty, hoppy taste and, unsurprisingly, a nice fruity tone to it, pleasantly light but slightly sweet (bit not too much) aftertaste. Overall a lovely, light, enjoyable and  a rather fun beer from the William boys. And like Innis & Gunn its recommended to be chilled a bit beforehand – maybe not so important as we enter autumn but a thought when next summer comes around. I find some fruity beers can be a bit overpowering, but I think this has the balance rather well between scent and taste, between fruitness and beerness. I think I may have to stick some more of these on the rack.

Brewery: Williams Bros
Location: Alloa, Scotland
ABV: 5.0%
Version: 500ml bottle

Part of the Sainsbury’s August beer haul, as per the bottle’s instructions I stuck this straight in the fridge to let it chill nicely. It pours a mid golden colour with a lovely hoppy, fruity, slightly citrusy aroma. The added oats, meadowsweet and elderflower could have resulted in an overly sweet flavour, but they’re well-balanced and don’t dominate, the taste instead being a fresh bitter hop tang with some light floral notes. A lively, refreshing drop for a hot day. Aptly named.

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.