Quiet but busy

Surprised its been almost 3 weeks since i posted,  I was however away on holiday for the last week.

Before we went away I managed to get in a visit to the Cardiff beer shop, I couldn't quite believe the amount of new beers he had in, from abroad and home also.
I picked up bottles from Bear Republic, Hardknott, Stone, Sierra Nevada, Nils Oscar, Red Willow and Magic Rock, all breweries I'd not tried before (except SN).
I had to leave behind so many bottles from so many amazing breweries that I want to try. The shop has really expanded its already outstanding range, with some special imports too, especially from the US.

Last week we went on a family holiday camping in the Gower, South Wales. Extremely lucky with the weather, we had a week of glorious sun, and we finished the week with a few days in Tenby, just spending the days on the beach.
Well when you've had a (non) summer as we have had in the UK this year (record rain falls, floods in June and July) you had to grab the opportunity while it presented itself.

While we were in the Gower we were lucky to be close to a pub called 'The Greyhound' which is home of the Gower brewery. With 5 of their beers on cask eagerly sampled and a quick chat with the landlord/brewer, I'll expand on this in another post soon.

I've also got a few reviews and photos to get up so I'd better crack on with those.

Pubs in Padstow, Cornwall

On our holiday back in May the guys got a night out, last year we went around the pubs in Wadebridge, this year we went to Padstow.

A beautiful fishing port town in North Cornwall, in recent times its probably fair to say its more well known because the celebrity chef Rick Stein has based his operations there. His influence is everywhere in 'Padstein' , his fish shop, restaurant, deli, culinary school etc. We'd bought some mackeral and a sea bass for a BBQ, and they were quite reasonably priced actually and damn tasty.

Padstow, taken from Rock beach

The last few years we drive to Rock on the other side of the harbour, spend some time on the beach and then water taxi it across to the town for ice creams, shopping etc. (plus you pass Sharps Brewery shop on the way to Rock!)

Despite his involvement with Sharps brewery to make Chalky's Bite and Chalky's Bark, two excellent beers, I don't think he's branched out his reach into the pub business yet.

So onto the pubs of Padstow. I tried to do a little research beforehand but there was little information and reviews online, beyond saying the 'London Inn' was a good locals pub.

We started at 'The Old Custom House', a St. Austell pub, large and spacious main bar, with a few comfy chairs which we sank into. A large TV screen silently showed some cricket as we ordered, from the choice of Tribute, Trelawney and HSD. I went for the Trelawney, a 3.8% bitter, i got alot of toffee and malts, medium body with light bitterness, a nice start to the evening.

We went next door but one to the 'Harbour Inn' which is another St. Austell. There is literally one art gallery shop between their two pubs, but the styles of them both are quite different, the Harbour being smaller, more 'local' vibe going on, its décor heavily showing the fishing port they are based in.
 They also had on Tribute and Trelawney, two seasonal - Torchbearer (olympics theme as the torch was to start it journey in the south west) and Dartmoor, and Korev on tap.
Dartmoor bitter, 3.5%, sweetish malt, fruity, fairly standard bitter, all the beers here in good condition it must be said.

We moved onto the the 'London Inn' just up the road away from the harbour. We started to spot a pattern here as guess what, its St. Austell again! Smaller place, reasonably busy, a lot of fishing paraphernalia around the walls, and the first sighting of Proper Job. Now that's what I wanted on this pub crawl, a pint of hoppy goodness.
Except it wasn't. Both my mate and I had it and felt it was quite muted in aroma and taste, and our other companion wasn't overly impressed with the Tribute either, it being rather lacklustre also.

A pub, mate and invisible friend.

We hot footed it out of there, up and across the road onto the Golden Lion Hotel. It was quite inside, a free house where the bar area was a little tired looking whilst the back courtyard, toilets, all look very modern. We got a friendly welcome from the barmaid, and someone's dog, and on cask they had Doom Bar, Skinners Betty Stoggs, and from the Tintagel Brewery 'Castle Gold'. All three of us had this, and found it in good condition, its a 4.2% golden ale, crisp and clean, a light citrus hoppiness, and honey sweet malts. Overall it appeared a relaxed and friendly place, it was good for a couple of pints and banter with your mates.

Moving back down towards the quay we went into the Old Ship Hotel. This seems to have had a little face lift since we were last in it, a big spacious place that I think is a free house. Its going for the 'gastro' look in my opinion, the menu looked nice if a little pricey, and to drink the choices were that day Sharps Doom Bar and their 'Special' and Brains SA which amused me, being so used to seeing it everywhere here in Wales to then find it on a night out in Cornwall!
The beer we felt seemed a little on the overly cold side, but after warming up a bit the 'Special' was great to try after enjoying it previously only in bottle form. Fruity, toffee, good solid body that gives you strong malts combined with rich plum and sweetness, excellent.

We then stopped in Rajano's restaurant for a pizza fuel stop, then on to the last pub in the town, the Shipwrights Inn, right on the dockside. Completing their domination of the local scene with the 4th out of 6 pubs in the town it was another St Austell joint. But in a way I was glad it was because their Proper Job was in great form, juicy, hoppy, clean and thirst quenching. It sat alongside Tribute, HSD, in a large open building, which also has a great outside seating area right on the harbour side. I can imagine on a sunny day sipping proper job, with that view, it would be heavenly.

Overall we had a great evening, you cannot ask for more than drinking good beer with your two best friends.

I was surprised considering the close proximity to Sharps brewery we didn't see more of their beers. To have 4/6 pubs in one town might normally not be a good business model but i think the regular tourist trade they get in Padstow its obviously sustainable for St. Austell.

Beer of the night - for me its between a good conditioned Proper Job, and the Tintagel 'Castle Gold'.

I would happily drink in any of the pubs again, I'm sure the London Inn was just having an off day beer wise, it would have been easy to sit there for a few otherwise.
I think I would visit the Harbour Inn before some of the others first though, purely because they seem to have a couple of the less well known and seasonal casks on rather than just the Tribute, Trelawney and HSD that the others all had. Shame no one had Black Prince on that day though.
 

Kernel Brewery Pale Ale Summit Galaxy NZC

Kernel Summit Galaxy NZC

Another one of the many pale ales produced by the excellent Kernel Brewery.
This is 5.3% abv, 500mls, bottle conditioned and I paid £3.69.

The hops listed are the US variety Summit, the Australian Galaxy and New Zealand Cascade.
And they put out some serious aroma, I was pouring this out at almost a good arms length and caught the tangerine orange immediately. Huge amount of sediment it must be said.

This has all that you want or expect, that lovely aroma, mid orange colour, hoppy orange and resin, pine, juicy, the texture is slightly oily, and the bitterness is lovely but not dialled up to ten, its a seven and that's perfect.
One thing for sure is that the Kernel Brewery rarely disappoint.

Conwy Brewery 'Rampart'

I have had a couple of bottles from North Wales brewery Conwy before, and their Honey Fayre beer was the re-labelled Welsh Honey Beer for M&S.

This bottle 'Rampart' is a 4.5% bitter, I cannot remember where I bought it, 500mls and bottle conditioned. In fact the conditioning is quite good, the beer has just a little carbonation, not to much but just enough to give it life and a little lift. Golding and Fuggles are hops used in this dark bitter.

Aroma has a hint of caramel and spice, and quite malty, there remains a smallish head throughout, on a dark copper colour.

There is more caramel and spice in the taste, on top of rich figgy fruit, and a small bitter finish. There is a strong woody element, and the alcohol shows its strength too. Quite enjoyable bitter overall.

Brewing monks and a real IPA

Two news stories from the last couple of days that have caught my eye:

From 'The i'

Developing a thirst for India pale ale

For centuries, English brewers have shipped beers to India. Now the subcontinent's entrepreneurs are developing their own. Andrew Buncombe reports


and from the Guardian 

 Ampleforth monks mix history, religion and malts in unique new beer

and 
Ampleforth's new beer - the movie(s)

King's Arms, Pentyrch

For my wife's birthday we had decided a week ago that we'd go for lunch at the King's Arms at Pentyrch just outside Cardiff. I'd read a while back that although it is a Brains pub that Otley brewery had taken over the lease.

So bit of a surprise yesterday not five minutes after I'd rung and booked a table that Brew Wales blogged about their 'Grand opening' this weekend, with live music, BBQ and a beer festival.

Now with a new paint job, the small 'snug bar' being very homely, the larger bar with a smart and classy looking interior, it's certainly pub you'd be happy to wile away a few hours.

Today they had the permanent pumps, Brains bitter and Otley 03, joined by guest beer Butcombe bitter.

Ordering from the spring lunch menu I had the Goan beef curry, with rice and a few chunky chips. I ordered the Butcombe to start with whilst waiting, in great condition, long dryness, clean, good and bitter. You can see other menu choices on their website.

The curry was really good, properly dry and perfectly cooked beef, my wife enjoyed her meal also, and we ordered a raspberry cheese cake with new season raspberry's, and chilli and something else compote,  and this was excellent also.

The Otley 03 BOss, labelled chestnut red, was good also, perhaps a little sweeter than the Butcombe, but similar dry and good hop bitterness.

Overall a good lunch, well worth checking this place out again if you know where it is. Good choices on the menu, reasonable priced for the quality your getting also, and good conditioned beers.


And chatting to the staff behind the bar today it sounds like, despite the weather, they are planning a great weekend so get there if you can.


p.s.  Anyone know how i get rid of the wikio text below??

Friday at Great Welsh Beer Cider Festival 2012

It was friday, it was Wales, it was raining.

hey - deja vu!!!

Actually the clouds lightened up a bit as I walked to the festival, texts informing me that my partner in crime this year (cruelly his wife made him go on holiday last year) had arrived and started without me. Well I would too!

Just the same as last year I made sure the first drink was one from Otley that I'd been unable to locate before, this one being '07 Weissen' (5%). And a great start and a kick in the senses for your first afternoon drink it was too. Cloves, orange and great wheat taste in a hazy yellow half glass. The bitterness was great, drying my mouth completely.

My next was more out of curiosity for the brewery more than anything.
I'd not heard of the Pixie Spring brewery before and they were listed as being based in Llantrisant which is quite close to me. Their Prince of Bengal IPA had already sold out so I went for the Deliverance APA. This had the cask labelled as 'Hazy' although it was only lightly so,  its 4.5% with 4 hops in it, some I suspect are the 'C' crowd as it gave some lovely lemon, perhaps grapefruit mostly, with a good dryness, light and fresh, very enjoyable. Later I found some of their flyers which listed a 'Black Army Stout', which was a beer I tried last year from the 'Llantrisant brewery' so I'm assume Pixie Spring is their new name. One to watch in Wales.

Gazz at Tiny Rebel stand

The Tiny Rebel brewery from Newport have only been going a few months, I did a 'Meet the Brewer' Q&A with then back in February. I'd only had their FUBAR before, fantastic it was too, and the display looked might impressive and extremely busy. Looking at various tweets before I even arrived I knew that FUBAR through the Hop Rocket, beers infused by being pulled through fresh hops in-line at the bar, had been the first beer to sell out on the first day. Restocked, I realised I had better get there soon before it went again. The hops being used were Amarillo according to the chalk note, the beer being the replenished FUBAR, a 4.4% APA, light yellow in colour, citrus and grassy, biscuit malts, very good.

By now I'd managed to introduce myself to a very busy Gazz and had a good chat, top bloke, happy to explain the workings behind a bar at a busy beer festival, their beers and future plans. I'd moved onto their 'Dirty Stop Out' after talking about smoked beers with Gazz, its a 5% smoked oat stout.
There is a good amount of smoke with it, small hits of dark chocolate with nice bitterness, with great smoothness alongside some vanilla, plus some spice that tickled the sides of my tongue.
They want to make it smokier, I've no complaints with that, but this was by far my beer of the festival as it was.

By now we'd jumped into the seats of a couple who barely hinted they were putting their coats on, you have to be that quick. Obviously there was more tables than last year again but with the popularity of this festival plenty more tables and chairs are required. The new token system seemed to work better from a punters point of view, no more losing torn off tickets.

Next up, Celt Experience 'Silures' , listed as a golden hoppy ale 4.6%. Grassy on the nose, golden yellow, but I got a lot of butter from it, too much for my liking, it was a struggle to finish this to be honest. Shame as all their beers I've had before are pretty good, I'll have to try it again and give it a 2nd chance.

Cant quite remember which one this was! (Possibly 'Cwtch')

The foreign bar was considerably lighter on choice than previous years, Czech Budvar providing 3 (well technically 4) options. The Original and Dark were on offer, plus a 'half n half' tap that drew from both lines. The other beer they brought was 'Yeast' 5%, an unpasteurised version of the Original, and this was the one that tempted me. Cold, obviously, crisp and clean, bitter finish, malty but balanced lager. Wasn't terribly exciting though.
Hopefully next year the organisers will go back to having a larger selection of foreign beers, on tap and bottled.

As I said in my pre-festival post the Waen 'Chilli Plum Porter' sounded like one to seek out. When I went round it seemed to be very popular, and I now know why. At 6.1% its a gorgeously fruity beer, subtle on the chilli, lovely spice floating around the mouth with a dry edge to it. Very good beer, I'd love to sit back with a pint of this again.

Going light again I plumped for Ilkley 'Mary Jane', 3.5% pale ale which was pretty good, very dry and hoppy, thin body but great flavours for a low abv beer. Would be a great summer session beer.

I turned back to Tiny Rebel at this point for the new 'Cwtch' a red ale 4.6%, brewed also with only 'C' hops. Great malty tones, herbal notes and taste, with matched citrus/lemon from those hops. Some caramel sweetness also. See Beer Lens for a great shot of the pump clip.

Up to the Brains bar next for one new to me, Jack Black, an oatmeal stout at 4.3%. My notes say a lighter body than the 2 previous stouts/porters I had that day, good roast flavour, good long bitterness, very pleasant. I also took a half of the Organ Morgan, a 4% golden ale, my notes underlined 'floral' in their description of the beer, it was a nice and smooth and a good way to end the evening.

The awards of the festival were announced whilst I was there, overall winner being the Barley Wine 'High as a Kite' from the tiny Heart of Wales, which was nice to see a speciality beer winning a national award.

If Tiny Rebel can maintain the high standard they have set so far with their beers I predict they will be picking up some awards next year, no doubt about it (to be eligible you have to have been brewing for a year).

Thanks to Cardiff CAMRA for another great festival.

My Beer of the Festival - Tiny Rebel 'Dirty Stop Out'

Great Welsh Beer and Cider Festival 2012

Great Welsh Beer and Cider Festival 2012

This Thursday 7th June will see Cardiff host its yearly CAMRA festival, at the Motorpoint Arena (CIA) until Saturday.

Organiser and Brew Wales blogger Arfur Daley has already blogged a few posts on its progress and his hopes for this year, and I must agree with him that the Brains and Tiny Rebel Breweries stands and beers are looking impressive, amongst the many others, giving us a massive choice headache (or is that to follow afterwards?!)

I’m hoping to attend on the Friday, and I’ve already been looking at the beer list on the official website which was last updated yesterday.

A few have interested me such as the Celt Experience ‘Silures’, their bottles are generally very good and this one is new to me and worth seeking out I think.

The new Kite Brewery have a few to try, their Thunderbird was very good when I had it in Tenby. As always a great selection from Otley, the O7 Weissen is one I’ve not before though and will probably tempt me.

The Waen Chilli Plum Porter sounds very interesting!!

And if you haven’t had the Mango beer from Zero Degrees then I can highly recommend it.

Most intriguing name listed? Surely is has to be Brecon’s Genesis 1.ii The Prophet's Porter!

On the website they list only three beers from the foreign bar, all from the Czech brewery Budvar, and the unfiltered pilsner certainly must be worth trying. This is a fairly limited choice compared to previous years so I’m not sure if this is all that’s on offer.

 Last updated 1227 hrs 05.06.12

Abbeydale Absolution 5.3
Abbeydale Moonshine 4.3
Acorn Barnsley Bitter 3.8
Acorn Gorlovka Imperial Stout 6.0
Acorn IPA 5.0
Big Bog Swampy 4.7
Brains Craft Brewery All at Sea 5.2
Brains British Summer 4.1
Brains Dark 3.5
Brains SA 4.2
Brains SA Gold 4.7
Brains Strong Ale 6.5
Brains Craft Brewery Barry Island IPA 6.0
Brains Jack Black 4.3
Brains Organ Morgan 4.0
Brecon Beacons to the sea 4.1
Brecon Bright Beacons 4.5
Brecon Bronze Beacons 3.9
Brecon Diamond Beacons 4.3
Brecon Genesis 1.ii The Prophet's Porter 5.6
Brecon Gold Beacons 4.2
Brecon Twilight Brecon 4.0
Brecon Wandering Beacons 5.0
Breconshire Ramblers Ruin 5.0
Bryncelyn Buddy Marvellous 4.0
Bryncelyn Holly Hop 3.9
Bryncelyn Oh Boy 4.5
Bullmastiff Son of a Bitch 6.0
Bullmastiff Welsh Red 4.8
Celt Experience Bleddyn 5.6
Celt Experience Red Castle Cream 4.7
Celt Experience Golden 4.2
Celt Experience Native Storm 4.4
Celt Experience Silures 4.6
Cerddin Cascade 4.8
Conwy Beechcomber Blonde 4.2
Conwy Cwrw Mel 4.5
Copper Dragon Black Gold 3.7
Copper Dragon Challenger 4.0
Copper Dragon Golden Pippin 3.9
Elland 1872 Porter 6.5
Elland Bargee 3.8
Elland Nettlethrasher 4.4
Facer's Clwyd Gold 3.5
Facer's Dave's Hoppy Beer 4.3
Facer's Landslide 4.9
Felinfoel Double Dragon 4.2
Gloucester Dockside Dark 5.2
Gloucester Gloucester Gold 3.9
Gloucester Mariner 4.2
Gower Gold 4.5
Great Orme Celtica 4.5
Great Orme Welsh Black 4.0
Grey Trees Rechabites Bitter 4.0
Heart of Wales Aur Cymru 3.8
Heart of Wales High as a Kite 9.5
Heart of Wales Irfon Valley 3.6
Heart of Wales Welsh Black 4.4
Ilkley Best 4.0
Ilkley Black 3.7
Ilkley Mary Jane 3.5
Jacobi Light Ale 3.8
Jacobi Red Squirrel 4.0
Kelham Island Kelham Best 3.8
Kelham Island Pale Rider 5.2
Kelham Island Riders on the Storm 4.5
Kingstone 1503 4.8
Kingstone Stout 4.4
Kite Cwrw Haf 4.1
Kite Gold Wing 4.2
Kite Thunderbird 4.5
Kite Jubilicious 4.4
Leeds Leeds Best 4.3
Leeds Midnight Bell 4.8
Leeds Yorkshire Gold 4.2
Llangollen Grange No1 3.2
Monty's Midnight Stout 4.0
Monty's Mischief 5.0
Monty's Sunshine 4.2
Nant Mwnci Nell 5.5
Neath Black 5.5
Neath Gold 5.0
Ossett Silver King 4.3
Ossett Yorkshire Blond 3.9
Otley Croeso 4.2
Otley Motley Brew 7.5
Otley O Garden 4.8
Otley O1 4.0
Otley O3 Boss 4.4
Otley O4 Columbo 4.1
Otley O5 Gold 5.0
Otley O6 Porter 6.6
Otley O7 Weissen 5.0
Otley O8 8.0
Otley Oxymoron Black IPA 5.5
Otley Odessa 9.7
Otley Thai Bo 4.6
Pixie Spring Deliverance APA 4.5
Pixie Spring Prince of Bengal IPA 5.5
Plassey Mild 4.2
Preseli Baggywrinkle 4.5
Preseli Rocky Bottom 4.5
Purple Moose Dark Side of the Moose 4.6
Purple Moose Glaslyn 4.2
Purple Moose Snowdonia 3.6
RCH East St Cream 5.0
RCH PG Steam 3.9
RCH Pitchfork 4.2
Rhymney Export 5.0
Rhymney Gold 4.2
Rhymney Hobby Horse 3.8
Rudgate Battleaxe 4.2
Rudgate Ruby Mild 4.4
Rudgate Viking 3.8
Saltire Raspberry Blond 4.0
Saltire Triple Chocoholic 4.8
Sandstone Edge 3.8
Snowdonia Carmen Sutra 4.4
Swansea Deep Slade Dark 4.0
Timothy Taylor Dark Mild 3.5
Timothy Taylor Landlord 4.3
Tiny Rebel Cwtch 4.6
Tiny Rebel Dirty Stop Out 5.0
Tiny Rebel Doc Brown 3.8
Tiny Rebel Fubar 4.4
Tiny Rebel Full Nelson 4.8
Tiny Rebel Hadouken IPA 7.4
Tiny Rebel Urban IPA 5.5
VoG Cwrw Dewi 5.0
VoG Still Reigning
Waen Blackberry Stout 3.8
Waen Chilli Plum Porter 6.1
Waen First of the Summer Waen 3.9
Wentworth Bumble Beer 4.3
Wentworth Oatmeal Stout 4.8
Wentworth Rampant Gryphon 6.2
Wye Valley DG Lager 4.2
Wye Valley DG Stout 4.2
Wye Valley HPA 4.0
York Centurion's Ghost 5.4
York Guzzler 3.6
York Yorkshire Terrier 4.2
Zero Degrees Mango 4.5
Zero Degrees Pilsner 4.8

New bottles.

Quick post, popped into Tesco tonight and bought a few of the bottles new to their shelves.

Castle Rock brewery 'Diamond Reign'  a Jubilee pale ale 4.1% 500mls £1.50.

Wandering down to the 'world beers' section where they are having a run of 'price drops' on quite a few of their bottles i bought:

Sierra Nevada 'Torpedo' extra IPA 350mls 7.2%  £2.18

and for some reasons also in the world beer section are:

Newcastle Brown 'Founders Ale' a 355ml pale ale 4.8% £1.51
Newcastle Brown 'Summer Ale' a 355ml golden ale 4.4% £1.51

Back from hols...

Another great week in Cornwall was had by our family and our friends, so much so plans for next year are already set out.

Family, friends, BBQ, beer. What more do you need?

The last couple of years we've endeavoured to try all that we could find from Cornwall's breweries, a  search on here for 'Cornwall' labels shows a lot of the bottles, and one of my flickr sets shows many others too.

This year we were aware of the number of beer runs we had done in previous years, and with the cost of petrol these days we planned ahead a bit better, bringing some beers with us, and buying a bit more selectivly when shopping in the week.
One thing we did was to aim to bring a couple of beer boxes with us, my friends bringing a 10litre from their local Ringwood brewery of 'Boondoggle'. I had hoped to bring a one from Otley via Real Beer Box as its within pick up distance for me but unfortunately they had none available, awaiting delivery of the boxes.


The Boondoggle is a 4.2% blond ale, in the box it was sediment free so the settling period was short.
Light, amber gold in colour, with a fruityness, and floral and grassy hoppy notes. Very drinkable, this was emptied swiftly necessitating further beer purchases.


On one of our days out we passed through Truro and I spotted the Skinners Brewery sign and headed in there and picked up their only boxed offering (that day, and at short notice I must add) which was Cornish Knocker.

If you ring the brewery a day or so ahead they can pretty much put any of their range into a box for you I was told, but as I dropped in without ordering this was what was on offer.
It was also still with sediment in it, (this can be removed if you order ahead) and I was advised to let it stand for a good 24hrs to settle. Also if you keep, clean out and return the box when ordering a refill you'll get money off the price.
Cornish Knocker is one I was have had in bottle form, okay pint but thats it I'll be honest, its also a blond ale a little stronger at 4.5%.
However I must say we were all quite impressed with this box, tasted nice and fresh, more body than the boondoggle, it was citrusy with a light bitterness, lemon, caramel sweetness, cereal malts.
Again this hit the spot as an easy uncomplicated afternoon and evening drink that week.

Myself and my two friends also did a tour of the Padstow pubs one evening, I'll write that up next, a lovely place dominated by Rick Stein and St. Austell it seems.

On the last day (friday) we visited the Sharps brewery shop in Rock, something we've done the last two years and I've posted about, picking up some great beers. Selection this year was not as wide, but I found in the fridge bottles from the new Sharp’s Connoisseur’s Choice range. As I still have previous years offerings of the Single Brew Reserve I was keen to add this years bottle for comparison. 
My hopes were dashed as I was told they were not being launched until monday next week and not for sale!! A little pleading and I was told I could get them on Saturday but this was still really not going to happen as we were travelling back then.
A purchase of Sharps 'Special' was some consolation however. That lucky man Leigh over at The Good Stuff has a great review of this range. No jealousy here, no sir. Grumble.

Padstow next!

Off to Cornwall to drink some more

like this.

Atlantic Discovery Smooth Blonde Beer with Elderflower & Lemon.

We are off on our holiday down to Cornwall next week, but a couple of weekends ago I drank a beer I bought on last years holiday. I previously reviewed one of these 'fine dining' beers by Atlantic and very nice it was too.

This one actually had expired going by the best before date by almost a year. Great looking label, and I was quite looking forward to this as I had recently been to Zero Degrees in Cardiff and had their new blond beer with Elderflower which was very good indeed.

This was a 330ml and bottle conditioned, 5.5% abv. Conditioning very good, had to be careful on the pour though as it was easily disturbed and floating sediment despite being stored and undisturbed for a year. You can see what I had to leave in the bottle.

Orange golden in colour, aroma is light and hoppy, lemon and orange.

Light body, again the citrus is there and floral elements of the elderflower, which is very pleasant I find. Nice and dry, a little bitterness but not much. A very light summery beer, my wife who is a dry white wine drinker I thought would like this and she did indeed enjoy a taster of it.

Despite not actually using it as an accompaniment to a meal as it is intended it stood up nicely as a late afternoon drink to quench a gardener's thirst.

M&S beers and offers.

I've had cause to visit a M&S store a few times recently, whilst waiting for car repairs to be completed. The 2 branches local to me have usually a good range, and as Meer for Beer in her recent run of posts has noted they've also a few new additions to this range, selected and brewed by the countries better breweries.

Inspired by her reviews I first fancied the Sandringham Ale ,then the Greenwich Raspberry wheat beer.


My first purchase was however the Greenwich Red Ale, a wine bottle shape and 750mls, wire corked, and 4% abv beer brewed with crystal and caramel malts for its red colour, and uses 5 types of Yakima Valley hops.
I imagine a few of you are thinking 'hmm sounds like their Yakima Red, their 4% amber ale??' Certainly ratings on ratebeer would agree with that. I have never had it so forked out its £4.99 price tag.

This morning on a return visit I indeed did get the raspberry wheat beer, and noted they have dropped the abv to 4.9% and refreshed the label on the Cornish IPA, and there is a new Bath Ales produced Ginger Ale which I passed on this time.

I then noticed that they have reduced the price of two of the beers from last years lines, the Southwold Dark Ale by Adnams, a 7.2% barley wine that was £2.19, and the 4.7% Cheshire Brown Ale by the Robinsons brewery originally £1.99. Both of these are currently only 99p each, both good beers and therefore worth picking up a few bottles at this price in my opinion. This second photo of bottles cost a very reasonable £5.95 as you also get deal 'buy 6 for 5' offer!

Meantime seem to have a few of their bottles fon the shelves of M&S (and Sainsburys) currently, the two mentioned above, the London Porter, and now also a limited addition Barrel Aged Greenwich Hospital Porter. It comes in a cardboard tube, corked again, 750mls and 6%.
There is a picture here on ratebeer. It is priced at £9.99 which despite the recommendation from 'the guardian' tagged on the shelf, was too rich for my blood I decided. Unless someone has had it and can recommend it at that price I think I'll pass.

Brains aiming to open at controversial Tenby development

Welsh brewers Brains are getting involved at the controversial Tenby development on the South Beach.

Down at the start of the beach was a run down cafe and it certainly could have done with modernising.
The land was sold and are to be "19 luxury apartments - with stunning sea-views". This shows the building August last year.

When you see it in the context below I can see why locally there was a fair amount of opposition to the development. Why people feel the need to build flats there and ruin such a beautiful landscape I'll never know. They have also had to dig into the cliff side to squeeze in all the buildings.

 The local news and events website Virtual Tenby has fairly strong opinions on the matter here.

This is how its progressing last month

Anyway, this is a beer blog you say, what about it?
Well there is to be a bar and restaurant at the site, and posters up showed Brains were seeking the appropriate licensing permissions, and they now have begun advertising for staff.

It'll be interesting to see how this does in the position it is, a very seasonal business surely? And if you end up with drunks, trouble and more litter on the beach, they could be in for a lot of bad press blaming Brains whether they're responsible or not. We'll have to watch this (ugly) space.

Kings Table Real Ale

My wife went to Hampton Court last weekend with some friends and brought me back a present, not quite the Knight in armour my son got but I was happy with a beer.

Its brewed for Hampton Court by Ballards Brewery. I'm not sure where they are based as their website says they brew in the 'heart of Sussex'  yet the address there says Nyewood in Hampshire?

Anyway look at the lovely label, great artwork. This is a bitter, 4.2% abv, bottle conditioned.
Interestingly alongside the usual pouring to avoid sediment advice it advises you to 'not refrigerate for longer than 30 minutes as a chill haze may result'.
Whilst I've read about beer's and hazes, I dont think I've seen that on a bottle before now.

Back to the beer, its a golden yellow, and an excellent example of how bottle conditioning can be done right.
Very little aroma, a little sweet citrus if anything. Good body, plenty of bitterness, clean and dry in the mouth, and extremely drinkable.

 Its nothing that will stand out but its not disappointing either. I wouldn't say you should seek it out but for any ticker you'll get a good session bitter alongside that tick.

Berliner Kindl Weisse

Like the last beer, this has been sitting in the shed for a good few months, in fact I think I bought it at the same time that Ghost Drinker posted his review of it, as I wondered how much more he paid in the Leeds North Bar than the £1.50 (edit - see comments below) I did at the Cardiff beer shop.

Since then I'd completely forgotten about what kind of beer it was, and dragged it out this weekend.
I'm trying to cut down on beer expenditure this month to have more for my Cornwall holiday beer purchases, so I'm going through my beer stash instead of buying new currently.

Opened up, pale straw yellow with an immediate frothy head, but it was short lasting and soon reduced to nothing much at all.

As I got the first aroma of green apples and lemony sharpness I started to wonder what this was? A first mouthful was like a static shock, made me sit upright, what was that!! As I commented to some popular deity about its sourness my wife enquired whether it was possibly off?
I was taking in such sharp crispness, lime cordial sprang to mind in flavour. Upon visiting Ghostie's page again I realised it was indeed supposed to be like this, although I did not have any syrup flavouring that is traditionally added to the beer.

At first I seriously thought I was not going to be able to finish the 3% and 330ml bottle but it actually became quite drinkable once you get over the initial shock. It had as it warmed almost a light mead/honey aroma and quality to it which certainly helped it go down! Very well conditioned in the bottle also.

Interesting to put it mildly!