Christmas Ale - Shepherd Neame (United Kingdom)

Christmas Ale - Shepherd Neame (United Kingdom) 7.0%

A reddish gold colour in a glass with a frothy, white head of foam. A dry, slightly herbal hop aroma with light red fruit and plum flavours. Sweet, lightly boozy and herbal taste with caramelized stickiness and dark malty flavours mixed with some light fruit tones (apple, raisin, plum). Shepherd Neame's Christmas Ale has sherry traits but also the robust malty body of a nice amber ale. The mix of flavours reminds me of really good fruitcake and is pretty close to my ideal concept of an English Christmas Ale.

Lancaster Bomber - Thwaites Brewery (England)

Lancaster Bomber - Thwaites Brewery (England) 4.4%

Lightly floral/nectar aroma, roasty, a bit of caramel and wood tones and hops like melon or cut grass. It tastes quite sweet, a bit nectary, a very nice watery refreshing mouthfeel, toasty with wood tones, a slightly bitter taste but quite a bit more bitter finish.

Lancaster Bomber has a creamy head, lacing and is a reddish chestnut/mahogany colour in a glass. Overall a classic English pub ale, bitter and quite nice.

Newcastle Brown Ale (England - Dunston)

Newcastle Brown Ale (England - Dunston) 4.7%

Mildly malty and moderately bitter, this brown is very drinkable and refreshing which probably explains why it finds its way (in draft form) into pubs and bars all over the world.

It is a dark reddish brown in a glass, well carbonated, fairly sweet and tastes a little like caramel. A mix of nuttiness from the malt and barely green hops flavour give this ale a few wooden tones.

All in all a good beer; not a heavily malty brown that could be intimidating to those more accumstomed to beers that are gold and fizzy. This beer is definitely easy to drink and to enjoy for people with a wide variety of tastes. For those looking for a beer that sticks to your ribs and leaves tiger stripes on your glass, you're better off with a thicker brown or a porter.

Saint Peter's English Ale (England) 4.5%

Saint Peter's English Ale (England) 4.5%

Very dry, sweet malt aroma with a touch of creamed corn and hones. Some hoppy wooden tones. Slightly roasty. Full gold in a glass.

Warm toasty toffee malt taste to go along with quite a bitter finish. Roasty, a slightly herbal spice touch along with quite a punch of hops for a beer that isn't dominated by hops though that must be what explains why it is as bitter as it is.

A great ale overall: nice tasting, nicely delivered in its cool bottle, nicely bitter, nice on the world (organic) and even a nice story.

Bah Humbug - Christmas Cheer! Wychwood Brewery (England)

Bah Humbug - Christmas Cheer! Wychwood Brewery (England) 5.0%

A quite reddish brown colour in a glass with a decent head and light lacing. A lightly cinnamon and malt aroma; a smell of glaze with some dried red fruits (cranberries). Hints of gingerbread and hops.

What a neat taste! Strongly cinnamon with cloves but with pronounced malt flavours of a red, like roast and glaze, and also sugary sweet crystal malt. The finish leaves your mouth feeling quite dry. The mix of flavours from this fine Christmas Ale puts me in a distinctly Christmas mood. Bah Humbug Christmas Cheer! from Wychwood Brewery would make a fun (and tasty) stocking stuffer for the beer geeks on your Christmas list.

Four From Fullers (England)

Fuller's London Pride (England) 4.7%

A hoppy green aroma at first. As the head fades the aroma changes to one of sweet lightly bitter maltiness. The taste is sweet and roasty with hints of caramel but also lightly spicy with hops and some mild wood tones. The moderate bitterness and the half-watery, half-smooth mouthfeel keep the beer refreshing as a good pub beer should be. An glowing orange colour in a glass.

Fuller's ESB Champion Ale (England) 5.9%

Malty and quite sweet but with a bitter finish and quite oaky. Many of Fuller's have stronger wooden tones than most. Pretty mildly carbonated. Tastes a little like Innis and Gunn's Rum Cask, which is high praise indeed. Best served warmish (8 to 10 C'). Mix of coffee/chocolate and plum sherry (alcohol and fruit).

Fuller's Organic Honey Dew (England) 5.0%

A sweet malty aroma that is lightly hoppy with cedar and a touch of fresh cut grass. Gold in a glass.

Fuller's Organic Honey Dew tastes sweet and a little spicy. The hops are certainly in there, bringing that spice and moderate bitterness, but you certainly wouldn't call this beer hoppy. The honey is also there, smoothly sweet and building in a sweet crescendo from the initial taste, where it is masked by the bitterness, towards the end of the drink where the whole flavour becomes sweet warm honey before the slightly metallic and slightly bitter aftertaste. A very pleasant organic beer with a cute and interesting bottle cap.

Fuller's London Porter (England) 5.4%

Sweet classic porter aroma: hints of molasses, maple, coffee and barley candy, with hops hints that come across as lightly wooden. Amazing coffee flavour at first and then it changes a little towards the chocolate end of the dark malt spectrum before fading into a bitter aftertaste of hops and smoke. There is a taste of a pleasant taste of oats throughout. Dark in a glass to point of being nearly opaque with a smooth, creamy mouthfeel.

Fuller's London Porter is perfectly executed and tastes just like actually beer blended of coffee or chocolate and yet it is made only from malt, water, hops and yeast. Porters like this make me feel that other porters that use actual coffee or chocolate in the brewing process are not only "cheating", but doing so completely unnecessarily.

Greene King (England - Suffolk)

Greene King Abbey Ale (England - Suffolk) 5.0%

A clear glowing burnt orange colour in a glass. Quite bitter with touches of caramel and roast. Numerous fruit tones combine to make give this Abbey Ale a heady taste with sherry-like hints. In fact it tastes as though it has an alcohol content quite a bit higher than it actually does. Despite the many different flavours Greene King Abbey Ale is fairly mild except for its bitter roast and its caramel flavour.

Greene King IPA (England - Suffolk) 5.0%

Very strong initial oak and caramel tones in the aroma. The aroma changes to something more of caramel and roast with quite a bitter backing though wooden tones do still linger. A nearly fiery copper colour in a glass.

The taste is very sweet: plenty of caramel or crystal malt in this beer! Also bitter, the wooden tones continue from the aroma to the taste, and a hint of alcohol which I find a touch surprising since it is only 5.0% ABV. The aftertaste is not particularly long lasting: flavours of roast and caramelized sugar fade slowly into a very warm and encouraging (to take another drink) glow.

UK Pub Brews

The flavours and mouthfeel of the following five beers are characteristic of beers I associate with pubs in the United Kingdom. There are many nice flavours but the slightly watery mouthfeel keeps all of these beers refreshing so that you could easily drink more than a couple. Enjoy!


Spitfire Premium Kentish Ale (England - Faversham) 4.5%

A warm toffee, roasty flavour. A pleasant sweet grain taste as well as a lively hops taste; somewhat bitter as a result (of the hops). A mild sherry-esque flavour of fruit rounds out the mix. That same fruit sherry aspect is prominent in the aroma along with toffee and roasted tones. A unique and pleasant drinking beer.

Ruddles County Traditional English Ale (England) 4.7%

Smells of bitter hops and is smooth on the tongue and almost a little watery. Tastes like toasted bread, lightly caramel, pleasantly bitter with a hint of coffee and a sprucy hops aftertaste although it's not nearly as hoppy as the smell initially led me to believe. A refreshing and interesting mix of flavours.

Belhaven Best (Scotland) 4.8%

I can see why this would be as popular in Scottish pubs as the can claims (though I saw more Tennets, London's Pride and Stella Artois). Belhaven Best's aroma is chock full of caramelized malt, as is the flavour, though there are also smoke and wooden tones that make it tasty if you like reds or, ahem, Scottish ales. Also its creamy head of foam and slightly watery mouthfeel make it very much pub-appropriate and session-able. It is a reddish brown colour in a glass and quite enjoyable.

Boddingtons Pub Ale (England) 4.7%

When you pour this ale from it's charming tall-can you are rewarded with a gold coloured curtain of tiny cascading bubbles that forms an extremely creamy head of foam. The aroma is of fresh bread and lots of roasty notes with hints of hops and spruce.

The ale itself is smooth and creamy as promised, and fairly sweet with a caramel touch. While it has roast tones and is bitter, it is also watery in a way that makes it dance on your tongue: hitting here and there while never being too strong tasting. Seems like an ideal summertime beer even though I'm drinking it in the depths of February. Highly drinkable and very pleasant, authentic to the style and it pairs well with a variety of dishes, those containing Dijon mustard in particular.

Old Speckled Hen - Morland Brewing (England - Suffolk) 5.2%

A fruity bouquet and a extra-reddish sort of amber colour in a glass with a full head. In true English fashion, this beer should definitely be served a little warmer than most in order to get the full flavours. It is malty, and bitter but also sweet (just the way ale should be). The malt taste is roasty and there is a little bit of spiciness lurking there too. Something about Old Speckled Hen always reminds me of sun-dappled wood floors.

Overall it is not too strong tasting, so drinkers with tastes that tend to the more bland beers could try this for a initial excursion into the wonderful land of full flavoured beers and ales. Also, I feel Old Speckled Hen is a good example of an English ale or at least it puts me in mind of a few of the better ones I had the good fortune to imbibe while I was in the UK.

Chin chin!

Organic Old Ruby Ale 1905 - Duchy Originals from Waitrose (England) 5.0%

A full amber that seems to glow the way it catches the light. Ruby seems a bit of a stretch but (if it is meant to describe colour rather than style) as suitable a word as any. Quite a sprucy flavour paired with plenty of sweet roast stickiness, a mild touch of citrus in the middle and hops comes through on the back-end with a fairly bitter finish. A lively ale, the taste seems to change with each second as it passes from lips to belly.

Certified organic this ale is one of many varied organic products by Duchy Originals from Waitrose a partnership founded by HRH The Prince of Wales. More information can be found on the link below. I wonder if they'll knight me for linking to?

www.DuchyOriginals.com

Bass Pale Ale (England) 5.0%

Bass Pale Ale (England) 5.0%

Amber in a glass. Bass Pale Ale is bitter with a malty body and has a somewhat perfumy finish. All in all, it is not particularly remarkable.

This bottle was probably a little stale as it tasted a bit like cardboard.

Three Beers For Beer Geeks

Wychwood Brewery Hobgoblin Traditionally Crafted Legendary Ruby Red Beer (England - Oxfordshire) 5.2%

Fairly red, fairly bitter. Kind of fruity and caramel-ey. Generally mild in flavour despite the grandiose name.



Beer Geek Breakfast - Mikkeller (Denmark) 7.5%

Black, black in a glass. Smells bitter and faintly of black olives (?). Tastes malty and quite pleasantly bitter and most unsurprisingly of black coffee. Really tasty, I would recommend drinking this out of a wine or brandy glass if possible.







Erdinger Alkoholfret (Germany) 0.0%

Sweeter than most wheat beers, though I usually find that most no or low alcohol beers are sweeter than their counterparts (because the sugars weren't changed into alcohol by yeast? mayhaps) but still it has a mild wheat beer taste. A bright gold in a glass. Nice to look at, nice to taste, nice to have as a middle of the day alternative to alcohol bearing beer.

Brakspear's Oxford Gold (England) 4.6%

In my opinion if you are going put a bumblebee on your label and bottle cap the beer should at least take a little like honey. Or at least be sweet. Not the case.

Hoppy and little bitter. Very mild flavours, almonds and vegetable greens. Crisp tasting, refreshing and the aftertaste is nice. It is balanced but there isn't much to balance. Amber in colour and underwhelming in flavour. More carbonated than I expected for an English beer: it had me burping.

On a hunch I left it for a while until its temperature approached room temperature and the flavours did come out a little more: more bitter, and tastes of apples blossoms.

Certified organic by the Soil Association and unless you are determined to drink an organic beer or just want it's really cute bottle cap this can be given a pass.