Beer round up no.2

A bit of a round up post, featuring a few beers I've had over the last few weeks but not featured in any posts, so i can now get onto the new bottles sitting waiting, so here goes......

Picked up a couple from Morrison's, including Everards 'Beacon Bitter', and one from my neck of the woods, Ringwoods 'Boondoggle'
After a 12 1/2hr shift i welcomed the Beacon bitter, pounced on it, and drained it down quickly. Classic copper in colour, faint fruit aroma with malty background, 3.8% abv. Mellow bitterness, alongside its toffee hints on a medium body. Good standard bitter, not much wrong with it.

Ringwood's 'Boondoggle' is one i remember having on cask many many years ago, you dont forget that name really. 5% abv which is apparently strong than on cask, light golden in colour, its a 'blonde beer' that has the aroma of a honey beer, sweet and floral. Taste wise its sweet but with a dry bitterness, lemon, digestive biscuit malt. Overall though it wasn't one that impressed me, it was like a bad Badger beer, overly sweet and floral, wouldn't buy it again i'm afraid, Ringwood do produce much better beers than this normally.

Black Sheep do good beers. Fact. 'Square ale', 'Golden sheep' and 'Riggwelter' - good bottled beers. Riggwelter is a 5.7% strong Yorkshire ale, a marvelously chewy toffee ale, cracking beer. Rich roasted malts, strong dark fruits, a sweetness bordering on treacle flavored. A nice coffee bitterness in there too, medium to heavy bodied, really enjoyable.


Brewdog's 8% Rip Tide stout was a nice drop but a little bit of a let down if truth be told. Black, black, black in the glass with tan coloured head. A little thin in the mouth which was a surprise, coffee, chocolate malts, licorice. I think i was expecting something a little more 'bombastic' from it than it actually gave, hence feeling underwhelmed.

 Young's Double Chocolate Stout, relatively famous beer in most respects, and another that features in the "best beers in the world" books with some regularity. So was quite looking forward to this one, open it and got a well carbonated black pint, little frothy off white head. Smooth, chocolate and some spice aroma, surprisingly noticeable hop presence. Again i was a little underwhelmed with it, if anything the milk chocolate was a little too sickly sweet for me.

Coniston Brewing Co.'s Bluebird Bitter, award winning and very drinkable. As you can see from the photo i just about left some in the glass before i remembered to shoot it! Golden straw colour, malty aroma with sweet fruit sweetness. Taste was very good, bready, malt, but also a floral and hoppy element. There also seems to be a little apple and maybe banana in there too? I would certainly like to try this on cask if given the opportunity.

 
Finally the other night i tried the Weihenstephan Kristall Weissbier. Very refreshing, crisp, dry, very carbonated as you can see. As you'd expect it has banana, clove, yeasty, and bubble gum sweetness. Lovely, not much wrong with it, again best on a hot day i would imagine.